Global Health Ethics Seminars at WHO HQ, Geneva. (360G-Wellcome-097737_Z_11_A)

This programme of research will provide a rounded and original analysis of one of the most ambitious efforts at increasing health coverage and equity internationally - the global movement for Primary Health Care (PHC). Developed and run over the course of much of the 1970s and 1980s, this health programme is deserving of detailed attention in a context where a new global movement for PHC is being advocated yet again by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan (who took up office in 2006 and is expected to be re-elected in 2012). This is, therefore, an ideal time for the preparation of detailed, historically grounded, inter-disciplinary and independent studies of past and current chapters of PHC. Situating these studies in detailed national and local case studies is important, so that they can assist in the development of more context-specific and effective global health policy. The proposed research project will acknowledge the great institutional complex ity of the WHO and other UN organizations such as the UNICEF, as well as national and local governments. Their multifaceted administrative structures ensured that policy goals were interpreted in varying ways and, in turn, meant that there were wide-ranging differences in project implementation. This programme of research will examine the provision of universal healthcare within India, Ceylon/Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; it will also look at the impact of the transnational spread of ideas as a resu lt of work carried out by global heath agencies in South Asia.