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Reposted by Antoine de Bengy

Thomas Stubbs @thomstubbs.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

📢 New call for papers in Globalization and Health: From Aid Dependency to Health Sovereignty? We invite work on debt, fiscal pressures, donor retrenchment, aid fragmentation, health financing & shifting power in global health. link.springer.com/collections/...

Call for papers for the Globalization and Health collection “From Aid Dependency to Health Sovereignty? The Political Economy of Global Health Financing in the Post-COVID Era.”

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Reposted by Antoine de Bengy

Tracey Wagner-Rizvi @twagnerrizvi.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Oooooooh! This one’s going to be super interesting!

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

One of the best reads I had in a while. Really insightful paper based on fantastic work to obtain covid vaccine contracts in South Africa. Highly recommended!

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Reposted by Antoine de Bengy

Rob Ralston @policyrelevant.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

@jacktaggart.bsky.social and I have been working together on multistakeholderism, and thinking about how these hybrid forms of governance connect to multilateralism This is an attempt to think through institutional hybridity in global plastics governance www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/glo...

globalpolicyjournal.com

Early View Article - The Trojan Horse of Hybrid Governance: Corporate Power and Global Plastics Governance | Global Policy Journal

This article examines the emergence of a hybrid institutional complex (HIC) in global plastics governance. By interrogating the structure, features, and contradictions of hybrid global plastics govern...

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

The UK pledged £1.25 billion to Gavi to save children, but the Minister of International development also reminds us that Gavi's partnership with UK pharma "supports economic growth and job creation, putting money in the pockets of British people." questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

questions-statements.parliament.uk

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

To contextualize this pledge, this means Norway cuts its contribution to Gavi by 50%, and keeps its funding to The Global Fund stable (does not follow inflation). Check out Development Today’s piece for in-depth coverage: www.development-today.com/archive/2025...

development-today.com

Norway puts brakes on Gavi pledge, old promises strain the budget | Development Today

Norway, a key donor to the vaccine alliance Gavi, announces a reduction in its support for the next five years, sending an ominous signal ahead of the agency...

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

3️⃣ The governance of public-private partnerships (PPPs). 👉 I propose a new categorization of PPPs called “quasi-public partnerships”, administered by a host organization and embedded within its bureaucracy -- unlike large and independent global health partnerships like Gavi or The Global Fund.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

2️⃣ How a humanitarian partnership brings together governmental agencies, militaries, commercial companies and NGOs. 👉 The short version: “It’s complicated” 🤷‍♂️

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

1️⃣ The role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in health emergency response. 👉 I explore how the WHO asserted its authority in humanitarian response and develops some form of operational capacity through the creation of the Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) initiative.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

New publication! 🎉 “Quasi-public Partnerships: Multistakeholder Governance in an International Organization” in Global Governance 🔓 brill.com/view/journal... The paper will be of interest to those interested in:

brill.com

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

PR spin suggestion: after his co-chairs Melinda Gates & Warren Buffet left the foundation, chairman Bill Gates decides to keep full control on how his money will be spent, and doubles down on his key priorities without consideration for recipient countries’ priorities.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Bill Gates is so rich that he‘ll still be a billionaire after giving away 99% of his fortune 💰

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Reposted by Antoine de Bengy

Katerini T. Storeng @kstoreng.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

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 🧵

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

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.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

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

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

c) 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?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

b) 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? 🔍⚖️

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

a) 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.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

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?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

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.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

4. The Gates 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.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

3. Foundation staff also frequently interact with bureaucrats, and Memoranda of Understanding formalize cooperation by highlighting key areas of common interest.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

2. 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.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

1. The Gates Foundation has set up an international bureaucracy to manage its relations with governments and multilateral organizations, including regional offices in London and Berlin. These resemble embassies and report to a “global policy and advocacy division” in the Seattle HQ.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

We analyze how the Gates Foundation strategically works to align European donor countries with its global health and development priorities. Our key findings in this thread 🧵

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Lise Bjerke @lisebjerke.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Happy to share my latest article in @biosocieties.bsky.social! 💊 🌏 It analyses science-policy responses to drug resistance and antibiotic pollution from pharma industries in India, showing how various uncertainties arise due to "molecularised" understandings of the environment. rdcu.be/ehiU9

rdcu.be

Antibiotics in the environment: molecularisation, drug resistance and pharmaceutical pollution in India

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Katerini T. Storeng @kstoreng.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

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...

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Reposted by Antoine de Bengy

Law360 @law360.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had no taxable profits in its largest market, the U.S., after booking all its income in jurisdictions including Puerto Rico, Singapore and Ireland, according to a Senate Finance Committee report. www.law360.com/tax-a...

law360.com

Pfizer Tops Pharma Tax Avoidance, Senate Dems Say - Law360 Tax Authority

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Interested in the role of mega-philanthropic foundations & private actors in global health governance? Come work with me, @kstoreng.bsky.social & team at the University of Oslo! PhD position: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... Postdoc position: www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-still... Deadline April 23.

jobbnorge.no

Postdoctoral fellowship in global health politics (SKO 1352) (277953) | Universitetet i Oslo

Stillingstittel: Postdoctoral fellowship in global health politics (SKO 1352) (277953), Arbeidsgiver: Universitetet i Oslo, Søknadsfrist: onsdag 23. april 2025

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Thanks for your reply. Gavi has been expanding its mandate and vaccine portfolio considerably - it’ll likely have to either lower support for some vaccines, or cut some out of its portfolio (malaria?). These strategic choices will shape impact on # of lives (based on vaccines’ cost-effectiveness)

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Funding cuts are bad news for global vaccination efforts, but the 1.2 million deaths projection does not make sense. It depends on reshuffling of budgets, re-prioritization within Gavi, and whether recipient countries step up to fill the gap (increase co-financing requirements for sustainability?).

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

g) In terms of market-shaping, will Gavi have more leeway to re-orient its purchase away from big US pharmaceutical companies? (We saw US pressures during covid to buy US)

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

f) In terms of governance, will the US loose its seat on the board – and how will this impact the different constituencies represented?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

e) Other questions include: Will the US also cut its support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative? If so, Gavi might have to further cut (it budgeted 671 million for polio vaccines during the period 2026-2030).

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

d) The malaria vaccine is particularly interesting, because Gavi and the Global Fund planned to cooperate on its roll out. *If* the Global Fund retain US support but not Gavi, this might change the power-balance between the two organizations.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

3) Go ahead in expanding its vaccine portfolio (cf Malaria vaccine), or re-focus on fewer, key vaccines?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

2) Invest more on health system strengthening (cf Lusaka Agenda) or double down on vaccines?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

1) Consolidate post-covid focus on pandemic preparedness and response (good for fundraising), or prioritize routine childhood vaccination?

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

c) This means that Gavi will likely have to re-prioritize from its 6.0 strategy launched last year after long negotiations, and develop a new, 6.1, strategy. At least three dilemmas will arise:

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

b) Gavi’s main headache is that other major donors are also cutting – or re-allocating - their ODA budgets (cf France, Germany, the UK, etc). Filling the budget gap will be difficult. Will the Gates Foundation step up to save its “baby”, and with what policy consequences? (increased influence?)

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

a) The US represents approximately 13-14% of Gavi’s core budget, giving in average $250 million a year the past decade. That’s a lot of money, and these abrupt cuts will definitely hurt global vaccination efforts. Bad news.

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Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Organizations funded by the United States helped keep dangerous pathogens in check around the world. Now many safeguards are gone, and Americans may pay the price. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/h...

nytimes.com

How Foreign Aid Cuts Are Setting the Stage for Disease Outbreaks (Gift Article)

Organizations funded by the United States helped keep dangerous pathogens in check around the world. Now many safeguards are gone, and Americans may pay the price.

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Antoine de Bengy @adebengyp.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

WHO needs to be funded - but I don't think an endowment would be a good idea: 1) Susceptible to financial crises and market fluctuations 2) Conflicts of interests (will a WHO fund invest in harmful industries?) 3) Harder to control WHO secretariat / risk of bureaucratic push-back and inertia

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