Paper short abstract:

This paper examines norms of engagement amongst the World Health Organization, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector, focussing on issues of ‘control’ and ‘power-knowledge’ in these interactions and how they influence WHO policy-making processes.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines norms of engagement amongst the World Health Organization, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector. It constructs a narrative of how the notion of 'partnership' - typically in the form of public-private partnerships - has become normalised in global public health. It focuses on the creation of two WHO policy documents, the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes (1981) and the Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Food and non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children (2010) and examines relationships and partnerships amongst the key actors in both case studies. As the two documents were written thirty years apart, they allow perspective for how engagement amongst various sectors has changed over time.

The paper draws from wider ethnographic research on the WHO, including a year of participant observation within the Organization as well as in-depth interviews with actors in both case studies. It posits that interactions amongst these key actors hinge around perceived and "real" control, with different actors negotiating various levels of control and influence over the policy-making process and outcomes - in the form of these two WHO policy documents. It also addresses control from Foucault's power-knowledge perspective by examining differences in the production, dissemination and use of public health evidence by NGOs, the private sector and the WHO - and how these differences influence policy-making at the WHO.