Regional health governance, policy and diplomacy

Regional dimension of health policy and diplomacy in regional organisations in Southern Africa and South America

Abstract

This open access Special Issue addresses the regional dimension of health policy and diplomacy by looking at regional organisations in Southern Africa and South America. It comprises 5 research-based articles centred on world-regional health governance and diplomacy, and a Forum section, bringing together policy-focused articles on the topics of South-South cooperation and the post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda.

The focus on health allows an assessment of how Southern regional organisations address poverty, inclusion and social inequality, as well as how Southern regional formations are engaging with power constellations, institutions, processes, interests and ideological positions in different spheres of governance. This focus on Southern regional institutions as sites of policy-making and as international policy actors adds important geographical nuances to research on the foreign policy dynamics of regional formations that have, to date, largely focused on the European Union. In the context of rapidly growing global (health) governance literatures, the collection brings new evidence about how the social relations of welfare are being (re)made over larger integrative scales and how regional actors may initiate norms to improve health rights in international arenas engaging in new forms of 'regional diplomacy'.

Citation

Yeates, N.; Riggirozzi, P. Locating regional health policy: Institutions, politics, and practices. Global Social Policy (2015) 15 (3) 212-228. [DOI: 10.1177/1468018115599819]

Regional health governance, policy and diplomacy

Published 1 January 2015