Globalisation and local power: influences on health matters in South Africa

This paper reviews some of the multiple influences on health issues in South Africa, placing them in the context of globalisation. By examining the complexity of factors, both domestic and global, which impact on these issues, it questions the extent to which global patterns in areas such as health policy, HIV/AIDS, health care pluralism, and neo-liberal macroeconomic policy have played out in South Africa. The identification of some of the multiple and complex forces in each case reveals a relatively consistent story of global pressures interacting with domestic realities, with some recognizably local results. There is no doubt that a full and nuanced understanding of health in South Africa requires an appreciation of developments in the global political economy, international organizations such as the WHO and World Bank, and forces which operate outside of institutions. In each case, however, the specific opportunities available to actors within the country, as well as the relative power of those actors, should be given their due consideration in analysing their potential impact on health matters.