Innovation in Global Health Policy

The field of global health has changed dramatically in recent years, with many new institutions, financing arrangements, and ways of working together. This course will analyze innovation in global health policy through case studies of initiatives ranging from new financing mechanisms to new incentives for drug and vaccine development to new ways to get these medicines to those who need them. Each case study will examine not only the design and impact of the initiative but also the path it took from idea to implementation—in this way the course will study how policy innovation happens and the factors that influence whether promising ideas succeed or fail. Through lectures, group presentations, and class discussions, we will examine the problems that these new initiatives sought to solve, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and assess the political context in which they were developed and realized