From “Health for All” to “Health as Investment:” The Role of Economic Rationalities in the Transition from International to Global Health 1978–2013

This chapter examines the role of economic rationalities in the transition from international health to global health since the late 1970s. It focuses, in particular, on the recent rise to prominence of non-communicable diseases on the global health agenda. Once considered to be diseases of affluence, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease have recently come to be seen as a threat to both the global population and the global economy. Strategies to combat the proliferation of NCDs have simultaneous been shown to be particularly cost-effective, making NCD interventions a solid global health investment. This chapter contrasts the current era of global health, in which health is imagined in as a form of human capital and a site of investment with a post-war era of international health during which health was advocated as a human right and public good. Drawing on empirical material including historical documents, published reports and the scientific literature, it argues that the transition from international to global health can be best understood as resulting from the rise of economic rationalities in the field of world health over the last 25 years.