Abstract
This article tests the assumptions of the literature regarding the neoliberal agenda (‘Washington Consensus’) promoted by international organisations through knowledge transfer and about the power they supposedly have through loan conditionality to impose their will on countries in financial need. In addition, it examines ‘avant-garde measures’ of neoliberal reforms exceeding the requirements from international organisations. Looking at the social policy concepts and advice these organisations give countries in the former Soviet Union, it utilises the example of healthcare reform in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The article examines the general advice these organisations gave between 1991 and 2018 for the reorganisation and management of the countries’ healthcare systems, especially concerning the introduction of a mandatory health insurance system.
Highlights
The article analyses the policy-related knowledge transfer of international organisations (IOs), especially social policy concepts and advice these organisations give to countries in the former Soviet Union (FSU)
While all IOs working on systemic healthcare reform in the FSU support health insurance schemes as an additional source of healthcare financing (HCF), there are divergences, especially regarding the question of out-of-pocket payments
The World Bank (WB) argued for a health insurance scheme in the countries under study because competition should lead to better healthcare quality and a more efficient use of resources
Summary
The article analyses the policy-related knowledge transfer of international organisations (IOs), especially social policy concepts and advice these organisations give to countries in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The transfer of knowledge is based on the concept of ‘policy transfer’ which describes ‘the process by which knowledge about policies, Global Social Policy 21(1). The transfer of knowledge needs ‘knowledge actors’ as carriers, exporters and inducers of new policy ideas (cf., for example, Jacoby, 2008; Stone, 2000, 2017) IOs, understood as international governmental organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the organisations of the United Nations, have been identified as major actors in transnational policy-related knowledge transfer
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