Private Financial Actors and Financialisation in Global Health

Benjamin M. Hunter, David McCoy, Ana Carolina Cordilha, Anna Marriott, Victor Roy, Felix Stein and Benjamin Wood (2025). Private Financial Actors and Financialisation in Global Health. UNU International Institute for Global Health.
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UNU-IIGH Research Reports

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  • Sub-type Working paper
    Author Benjamin M. Hunter
    David McCoy
    Ana Carolina Cordilha
    Anna Marriott
    Victor Roy
    Felix Stein
    Benjamin Wood
    Title Private Financial Actors and Financialisation in Global Health
    Publication Date 2025-01-20
    Place of Publication Kuala Lumpur
    Publisher UNU International Institute for Global Health
    Pages 37
    Language eng
    Abstract The era of the Sustainable Development Goals has become the era of private finance. Decades-long political, economic and social trends have seen rapid growth in the size and scale of private finance relative to public finance, and the increasing political power of private financial actors. In global development, this has taken form in narratives and actions that establish and quantify investment gaps, call for greater and greater levels of private finance to fill these gaps, and create new financial instruments with which to realise the expansion of private financial capital. These changes are sometimes referred to as ‘financialisation’. This briefing paper responds to the expansion of private finance in global health, demystifying the process of financialisation and offering a vital counter-perspective to an increasingly pervasive but questionable narrative that positions private finance as necessary to the future of global health. The paper charts the expansion of private finance across global health, pointing to how actors once marginal to this sector are becoming central to its financing and governance. Drawing on several case studies and a growing body of evidence, the briefing paper highlights three overlapping concerns associated with the financialisation of global health: the high cost of private investment; the undermining of public health principles and values; and the weakening of democratic governance and regulatory capture by powerful private financial actors. The paper raises the alarm that many aspects of financialisation in global health are harmful and calls for three sets of action: challenge the common fallacies and false narratives regarding private finance and associated financial instruments; press for change in public and multilateral policy and practice; advocate for alternative models of financing and governance that are more strongly rooted in the public interest.
    Keyword Accountability
    Power
    Governance
    Global health
    Financialisation
    Private Finance
    Copyright Holder United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH)
    Copyright Year 2025
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI https://doi.org/10.37941/RR/2025/1
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    Created: Mon, 20 Jan 2025, 16:25:26 JST by Silvia Fancello on behalf of UNU IIGH