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Transformation From Below?: The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Global Governance of the Response to HIV/AIDS.

This thesis contributes to debates on the role of civil society organizations (CSOs)
in global governance by asking if their participation in the global response to
HIV/AIDS has been transformative – with transformation conceptualized as change
towards a more equitable order. Adopting a critical International Relations
approach, and applying qualitative methods, it analyzes how CSOs used the initial
failure of biomedical responses to the epidemic to advance a human rights frame,
which justified their participation in global governance. This frame complemented
conceptions of AIDS exceptionalism, and has recently shifted in response to an
increased focus on key populations. CSOs continue to advance the rights frame in
global institutions – the focus here being on how they have done so within UNAIDS
and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. However, rigid
bureaucracies and dominant power relationships limit CSOs’ ability to transform
these institutions to be more responsive to and representative of those affected by
the epidemic. CSOs have further struggled to influence the largest global donors of
the HIV/AIDS response – the Global Fund and PEPFAR – to direct greater
resources to rights-based initiatives, despite CSO participation in resource
mobilization. Though CSO participation has been restricted by donor state power,
bureaucratic structures, and changes in the political economy of global health,
CSOs have continued to promote potentially transformative alternatives, and so
have continued to represent the interests of those most affected by the epidemic.
This allows potential for further transformative alternatives.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/7512
Date January 2014
CreatorsSmith, Julia Heather
ContributorsGreene, Owen J., Poku, Nana K.
PublisherUniversity of Bradford, Faculty of Social and International Studies
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, doctoral, PhD
Rights<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.

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