Promoting health protection worldwide: The International Labour Organisation and health systems financing, 1952–2012

In recent years, universal health coverage (UHC) has returned with a vengeance to the international agenda, raising complex and highly political questions about how health systems should be organised and financed. Drawing upon an extensive analysis of archival material, this article examines the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) approach towards health systems financing in the second half of the twentieth century, exploring its evolving strategy towards social health protection in the context of international development, and its relationship with other international agencies, notably the World Health Organisation and World Bank. It argues that while the ILO’s role in international development has come into question in recent decades, its officials have nevertheless made a meaningful contribution to the promotion of health protection worldwide. Despite the wider marginalisation of universalism in post-war international discourse, ILO officials continually shifted their strategy to ensure that mechanisms of health protection such as social health insurance were prioritised in health systems development. ILO support contributed to some notable successes, such as the achievement of UHC in Thailand in 2002.