Summary: Global governance has undergone significant change since the late 1990s, with the number of global players in health, trade, and development finance rapidly increasing, mobilizing more funds for health and development in developing countries, and spurring global trade. This trend has challenged the three most prominent intergovernmental bodies in these areas—the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank. They now need to adapt to a new world order where they play a less central role. After World War II, governments around the world forged international agreements and treaties, forming global bodies to promote international good in almost every social sphere. In 1944, the World Bank’s predecessor, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was established to help rebuild economies devastated by the war. Three years later, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which over time evolved into the WTO, was formed. The WHO was set up soon after in 1948 as the United Nations’ specialized agency for health. But in the 1990s, new actors—nonstate and nongovernment organizations—emerged, challenging the authority of the WHO, the WTO, and the World Bank, says Matthias Helble, senior economist and co-chair of the research department at the Asian Development Bank Institute. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2ue7k3l Read the working paper https://www.adb.org/publications/comparison-global-governance-across-sectors-health-trade-development-finance About the authors Matthias Helble is senior economist and co-chair of the Research Department at the Asian Development Bank Institute. Jera Lego is an ADBI associate. Zulfiqar Ali was an ADBI associate at the time the research was published. Know more about ADBI’s work on Trade https://bit.ly/2oTzgng https://bit.ly/2D3NTJH Health https://bit.ly/2pxdEyb https://bit.ly/2HVr2CZ
