The economic gaze: the World Bank’s influence on global public health

The World Bank is the largest financial contributor to health related projects, and arguably the most important institution in international health cooperation. Professor Sridhar asks: what has the Bank contributed to global health over the past 40 years in terms of finance, ideas and networks, and how successful has this contribution been? Secondly, how has the Bank’s increasing involvement as an economic institution transformed how we think about and develop policies to address health? Five periods will be examined between 1946 and 2014. This project will rely heavily on primary sources from the Bank, WHO and the Rockefeller Foundation, and relevant secondary sources.