Katerini T. Storeng

The Business of Pandemic Intelligence: Implications for Global Health Governance During the Covid-19 pandemic, tech startups emerged as important providers of pandemic intelligence, leveraging diverse data sources and advanced computational methods to advise public policy on dise....

#Globalhealth scholars are beginning to take the private sector more seriously. One example: @kstoreng.bsky.social on how private epistemic authority challenges WHO onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Excited to share my article on the rise of a commercial market for pandemic intelligence. I analyze tech startups’ influence on public policy and the implications for WHO’s traditional authority in public health intelligence. Open access in Global Policy onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Join us this morning to discuss market failure in health systems and public health with Owain Williams

The Gates Foundation’s network diplomacy in European donor countries - Globalization and Health The Gates Foundation is the most influential private philanthropic foundation in global health and development. This article examines how the Foundation has developed an unparalleled capacity to rally...

🚨 New paper 📑 available open access “The Gates Foundation’s network diplomacy in European donor countries” globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Our study is just a first step – more research is needed to investigate how the Foundation interacts with other donors (e.g. Gulf States, Singapore); better understand partners’ perspectives through in-depth research; how other private foundations seek to influence policy; etc.

10. If everyone becomes a partner of the Foundation, who remains to hold the Gates Foundation accountable?

9. How can we ensure that policy alternatives may also emerge – including some that might challenge the “Gates approach” to global health and development – if everyone is aligned with the Gates Foundation?

8. Is it appropriate for a foreign private actor to develop close diplomatic ties with governments, while in parallel, working with and funding other stakeholders to influence policy? Do we have regulations in place to ensure that these interactions are transparent and accountable?

7. The Gates Foundation’s network diplomacy gives it influence over public policy. Its links with and funding to a wide range of actors in the global health ecosystem represents a remarkable concentration of power in the hands of a private actor.

6. The concept of network diplomacy helps to make sense of the Gates Foundation’s direct and indirect engagement with European donor countries by highlighting its capacity to leverage its networks to advance its own policy objectives. Why does it matter?

5. The Gates Foundation has some favorite European advocacy partners. Save the Children (UK), DSW (Germany) and Focus 2030 (France) get larger, longer and more frequent advocacy and policy grants than other NGOs.

4. The Gates Foundation’s advocacy and policy grants go to activities that increase support for ODA; support the replenishment of Gates-funded global health initiatives; develop policy proposals; and “generate compelling and well substantiated development success stories”.

2. The Foundation funds actors across the entire global health and development ecosystem. Between 2007 and 2024, it awarded $400 million in policy and advocacy grants to a wide range of NGOs, think tanks, research institutes, universities and media organizations in the UK, Germany and France.

1.The Foundation has developed close ties with European political leaders, including through many high-level meetings in the UK, Germany and France and with the European Commission (up to 10 annually). Bill Gates has met with every French president during the past 25 years.

In a new paper in Globalization & Health, @adebengyp.bsky.social @simonrushton.bsky.social and I analyze how the Gates Foundation strategically works to align European donors with its global health and development priorities. Our key findings in this thread 🧵

🔴𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄!

Join our livestream to follow discussions from the symposium 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙂𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚: 𝘿𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙋𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚, co-organised by UNU-IIGH and Third World Network.

🎥 Link here: go.unu.edu/ElCNL

#GlobalHealth #UNU

Interested in understanding the impact of mega-foundations and other private actors in global health governance? Apply by April 23 to join the Global Health Politics group @uio.no

PhD: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Postdoc: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

www.sum.uio.no/english/rese...

Please join us for this webinar today at 15:00CET to discuss the political determinants of digital health

📣Event TOMORROW 4th March

The US is withdrawing from the #WorldHealthOrganisation. Now what?

@sfparr.bsky.social, @josephharrisbu.bsky.social, @aliciay.bsky.social, Paulo Buss, & Sanya Reid Smith discuss.

Have you signed up yet? www.sum.uio.no/english/rese...

Starting now! Please join us!

Are today’s public-private partnerships the partnerships we need to meet future global health challenges? Find out what we think in this free to access Lancet Viewpoint authors.elsevier.com/a/1kWO5V-4XO... with @adebengyp.bsky.social, @profsophieharman.bsky.social, @simonrushton.bsky.social

Thrilled to see @thelancet.bsky.social publish our viewpoint “Global health partnerships for a post-2030 agenda”, co-written with @profsophieharman.bsky.social @simonrushton.bsky.social and @kstoreng.bsky.social

A thread 🧵

This free webinar is an opportunity to find out more about key themes and data which impact on global maternal health, and identify the key ways in which organisations and individuals can make a difference

Leave WHO + Global Gag Rule returns + End PEPFAR immediate effect + intend to rejoin Geneva Consensus Declaration = 1 week of Trump, devastating consequences for women's health.

Join me to discuss today r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/4XDB-GGL/j... & next week us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Bird Flu Enters a New Phase, Scientists Say (Gift Article) A pandemic is not inevitable, scientists say. But the outbreak has passed worrisome milestones in recent weeks, including cattle that may have been reinfected.

A bird flu pandemic is not inevitable. But a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/h...

Trump Administration Halts H.I.V. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries (Gift Article) PEPFAR’s computer systems also are being taken offline, a sign that the program may not return, as Republican critics had hoped.

BREAKING: The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/h...

I’ve spent a fantastic month in Kuala Lumpur visiting @unu-iigh.bsky.social, working on private foundation’s role in global health with @dcmccoy11.bsky.social. Thanks to @unnicycles.bsky.social @rvandepas.bsky.social and other UNU colleagues for welcoming me!

Stay up to date with the members of the Collective for the Political Determinants of Health!

bsky.app/profile/did:...

and worth flagging the consequences / implications of this potential black hole in WHO financing

WHO has already created a foundation to attract funding from business and private philanthropy and these efforts to expand private sector financing are likely to accelerate

#Trump’s withdrawal from @who.int was widely anticipated & criticised for damage it will cause. It serves as a wake-up call for the importance of multilateralism in the face of American unilateralism. In our @bmj.com piece, we outline actions to address the crisis
www.bmj.com/content/388/...

New analysis of how financialisation shapes global health - by @collectivehealth.bsky.social members @benmhunter.bsky.social @felixundstein.bsky.social @annamarriott.bsky.social @dcmccoy11.bsky.social and others