The eight articles and a book review discussing “Innovations in Global Health in the New Political Era” in the a special issue of the Global Health Governance Journal, edited by Dr. Devi Sridhar and Prof. Larry Gostin,  makes very interesting reading. A key theme running, essentially, through all the articles and book review is the need for reforming the World Health Organization (WHO) if this United Nations (UN) agency is to play its rightful role in addressing the challenges that the world faces in the 21st Century. As the editors note in the introduction, “The contributors to this special issue have made a real case for reform in the global health governance system.”  Read the rest of this entry »

On 30 April 2009, the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council re-appointed Pascal Lamy as Director General for another four years starting from 1 September 2009 when his first term comes to an end. Lamy was unopposed in his bid for a second term. This is because no other candidate was put forward by any other WTO Member State to compete against him. This is quite unusual considering the acrimony and the number of candidates who ran before. In the first truly competitive elections for the post in 1998, the then six year term for Director-General had to be split into two between Moore of New Zealand and Supachai of Thailand due to a deadlock. During the elections for Lamy’s first term there was a significant number of competitors.  Read the rest of this entry »