Guiding Principles for Regional Collaboration

Guiding Principles for Regional Collaboration

Policy makers use the concept of public goods to define the role of government and international agencies in policy implementation. But as globalization gathers pace, goods—as well as diseases— cannot be kept within national borders. Experiences inside and outside public health can provide guidance on where collaboration may have advantages.

For example, the International Task Force on Global Public Goods, convened by European governments, defined global public goods as "issues that are broadly conceived as important to the international community, that for the most part cannot or will not be adequately addressed by individual countries acting alone and that are defined through a broad international consensus or a legitimate process of decision-making” (International Task Force 2006).

A similar approach could be taken for nonpublic goods as well. The International Task Force also calls for the intervention of global institutions, such as the United Nations and the World Bank (International Task Force 2006). The report stops short of recommending how these global institutions could establish mechanisms to finance and provide those global goods.