Abstract
Civil Society Organisations have become influential actors in the global health arena and thus an understanding of who they are, their legitimacy, roles and the tensions they face is crucial to understanding global health governance. This chapter describes the growing role of Civil Society Organisations in global health governance. The first sections define the term Civil Society and then discuss the different types of organisation which may be regarded as Civil Society actors and their strengths and weaknesses. The following sections describe the roles that are played in global health diplomacy by these different actors with case study examples of the way Civil Society can shape global health through engagement in international meetings, championing specific causes and holding government and international agencies to account. In many cases Civil Society actors provide a vital link between the discourse on global health issues at international and national levels and the concerns and contributions of ordinary citizens. This Public Diplomacy function is described as a vital component of global health governance. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the tensions Civil Society Organisations face and how their roles can be enhanced in the future architecture of global health governance.
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Further Reading
Baybutt, A. (Director) TV (2004) “The Band Aid Story” a film you can download about the formation of Band Aid.
The Lancet see global health articles and Global Health TV. http://www.thelancet.com/).
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Barmania, S., Lister, G. (2013). Civil Society Organisations, Global Health Governance and Public Diplomacy. In: Kickbusch, I., Lister, G., Told, M., Drager, N. (eds) Global Health Diplomacy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5401-4_18
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