"Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Local Implementation of Global Health Priorities"

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SES-1202712Stefan TimmermansTara McKayUniversity of California, Los AngelesDoctoral Dissertation Research: The Local Implementation of Global Health PrioritiesABSTRACTGlobal health policy faces the challenge of reconciling international and local goals. This dissertation examines how tensions and ties among countries shape the diffusion of health programming priorities. Using a novel dataset utilizing four waves of UN country progress reports, this study considers how organizational ties among states and elites have shaped the diffusion of health programming priorities and tests the role of organizational ties against other prominent theories of social change. Additionally, the study employs original survey and ethnographic data to examine closely the social underpinnings of organizational and popular resistance to global health priority diffusion.The intellectual merit of this study rests in its focus on the social processes that have informed the ongoing construction and diffusion of global health policy priorities at three distinct levels: transnational elites, government and non-government organizations, and ordinary citizens. This study draws from the sociological literature on health to inform an understanding of the ways in which the identification of health policy priorities is shaped by macro social forces. The study also integrates the organizational literature on institutional isomorphism with additional theories of social change and diffusion in order to reconstruct the pathways of adoption and resistance to global health policy priorities. Broader ImpactsChronic conditions and infectious diseases continue to have a major impact on morbidity and mortality around the world. They affect life expectancy and quality of life for millions of people. Policies designed at the national and supranational level that seek to prevent the transmission of illnesses, and that regulate e.g., treatments vary greatly in their effectiveness due to variation in implementation at local levels. If successful, findings from this study may inform our understanding of global health policy is made, how populations deemed at risk are identified, and the conditions under which policy goals become uncoupled from policy outcomes.