Global (mis)governance and the prospect for health in the arab world: The case of Syria

The current crisis in Syria sheds the light on how the institutions of global governance such as UN agencies and development assistance agencies directly impact health and wellbeing, indeed even prospects for survival. In this case study, we propose to examine this impact but also what can be done within current or alternative global governance scenarios. We trace the governance origin of the current crisis in Syria through a document review, examine the impact for public health and social wellbeing through a mixed methods approach utilizing document review and interviews with key informants, explore alternative views of the future, focusing on public health and social protection, through interviews with key informants, and attempt to understand how key informants consider different visions of the future under competing global governance scenarios. We show profound impact of the crisis for health status and the health system. Different views of the future of public health emerge. While Syria is the focus, the case study explores broader issues related to the theme of ‘conflict and health' in the Arab world and also explores the impact of global governance on health and wellbeing beyond countries in acute conflict situations or even countries experiencing complex emergencies. We argue that such impact can be traced across various “stability” and income country groups. Taking the broader framework of human security, we will argue that global governance has pervasive effects on regional and local structures, movements and actors, all with profound impact for public health and welling.