Global Health and Foreign Policy at the UN

Abstract

This chapter will identify the major actors in the nexus between foreign policy and global health at the UN General Assembly. It will examine the roles and the interconnectedness between major actors in this sphere and how they work together at key committee stages to reach agreement. This will be illustrated by the initiative of the “Oslo Group”, to raise an agenda item entitled “Global health and foreign policy” in the Assembly and successfully negotiate its adoption. A group of seven countries founded the initiative on foreign policy and global health and adopted the “Oslo Ministerial Declaration-global health: a pressing foreign policy issue of our time”. This initiative complemented other health initiatives within the UN multilateral system, with a broader focus on issues of trade, environment, infectious diseases, preparedness, disasters, conflict, development, global health security, human resources and HIV/AIDS.