Dr Clare Wenham COW 3:07

This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Health Economics and Policy (LSE and Chicago). This course is not available as an outside option.

Health policy is no longer purely a government activity, but globalisation and global organisations have impacted on the nature of global health, and the policies created to manage the health needs of the global population. This module critically examines global health policy and normative shifts in understanding global health which impact upon it. The multi-actor framework of global health actors involved in the provision and practice of health policy now includes United Nations agencies (WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS etc), a number of NGOS, civil society organisations, private sector, foundations, public private partnerships. Each actor has their own priorities for setting the global health agenda, and this module examines the role of each and their impact on health policy at national, regional and global levels. The module will analyse a range of case studies of global health events and global health policies and the governance arrangements made by them. In doing so, this module will draw on contributions from international relations, political science, sociology and public health research

12 hours of lectures and 8 hours of seminars in the MT.

All students will have the opportunity to participate in additional lectures undertaken by external guests. These lectures will be run every Monday and Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm during the teaching period at LSE.

In addition, students will be given the option to participate in a three-hour webinar hosted at least 10 days before the due date of the take-home assessment. The webinar will consist of two-hours of lectures and one hour of question time.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT.

1 X 1000 word essay. Students will be asked to submit a short 1000 word essay (on the topic that they are writing on for the summative, but a different question) at the end of January. These will be graded and feedback given to students. This allows students to get valuable experience of writing at MSc level at LSE, and the expectations of the summative assessment. This then allows students to take this feedback and use it in their writing of the summative work. For example, if a student’s formative work flagged particular concerns this could be addressed ahead of the summative submission.

• McInnes, C., & Lee, K. (2012). Global health and international relations. Polity

• Davies, S. (2010). Global politics of health. Polity.

• Frenk, J., & Moon, S. (2013). Governance challenges in global health, New England Journal of Medicine, 368(10), 936-942

• Youde, J. R. (2012). Global health governance. Polity

• Feldbaum, H., Lee, K., & Michaud, J. (2010). Global health and foreign policy. Epidemiologic reviews, 32(1), 82-92.

• Heymann, D. et al. (2014), Global health security: the wider lessons from the west African Ebola virus disease epidemic, The Lancet vol 385, no 9980, p1884 – 1901

• Rushton, S. (2011) Global Health Security: Security for Whom? Security for What?, Political Studies 59 (4): 779 -796

• McCoy, D., Kembhavi, G., Patel, J., & Luintel, A. (2009). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's grant-making programme for global health. The Lancet, 373(9675), 1645-1653.

• Parker, M., & Allen, T. (2014). De-politicizing parasites: reflections on attempts to control the control of neglected tropical diseases. Medical anthropology, 33(3), 223-239.

Essay (85%, 4000 words) in the LT.
Presentation (15%) in the MT.

1 x 4000 word essay due in LT (after lecture/seminar programme in December) – 85% of grade

Students will be asked to pick one essay question from a list of 8 topics. They are also given the option to choose their own essay topic (after discussion with their seminar leader) if they would prefer. The questions will be broad, allowing for student individuality to come across in their answers. For example: What role should the WHO play in the future of global health policy?

1 x seminar presentation and leading of group debate in class – 15% of grade

Students will each pick a session to lead /present on. This will be from the list of designated topics for seminars each on a particular area of global health policy. The assessment will be on the content and presentation of the topic to their classmates. Each student in the session will provide feedback (via Padlet) on the presentation which will be returned to the presenter (s). They will also offer a grade for the presentation, which will be aggregated with the seminar leader’s grading.