Defining and Measuring the 'Global Health Agenda'

23 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2010 Last revised: 3 Sep 2010

See all articles by Jeremy Shiffman

Jeremy Shiffman

School of Public Affairs

David Berlan

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Khaldoun Abou Assi

American University - Department of Public Administration and Policy

Ben Elberger

Institute for International Economics - Center for Global Development

Amy Cordero

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Tim Soper

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shannon Roe

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Mary Kosman

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: August 26, 2010

Abstract

Scholars and policy-makers frequently use the term ‘global health agenda’ or some variant, usually because they are expressing a concern that an issue is neglected. Rarely do they define what they mean by the concept, making it unclear what they are referring to. We offer a working definition: ‘the list of health issues that a set of elite organizations involved in global health are paying attention to at any given point in time.’ We then offer some recommendations on how the agenda status of any given health issue might be measured and draw some initial findings from these measures, examining which issues get attention, whether attention corresponds to burden, and how different dimensions of agenda status such as media attention and donor funding relate to one another. The aim of offering definitional clarity and a means of indicating agenda status is to advance the study of agenda-setting in global health, so that we might move beyond impressionistic statements and toward empirical measures of what issues are and are not receiving attention in global health, and in which arenas that attention is appearing.

Keywords: Agenda setting; global health

Suggested Citation

Shiffman, Jeremy and Berlan, David and Abou Assi, Khaldoun and Elberger, Ben and Cordero, Amy and Soper, Tim and Roe, Shannon and Kosman, Mary, Defining and Measuring the 'Global Health Agenda' (August 26, 2010). APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1644585

Jeremy Shiffman (Contact Author)

School of Public Affairs ( email )

Washington, DC 20016
United States

David Berlan

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Khaldoun Abou Assi

American University - Department of Public Administration and Policy ( email )

4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

Ben Elberger

Institute for International Economics - Center for Global Development ( email )

2055 L St. NW
5th floor
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Amy Cordero

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Tim Soper

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shannon Roe

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Mary Kosman

affiliation not provided to SSRN

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