Policy Shifts in Norwegian Development Assistance for Health : A contextual analysis

Abstract

Throughout the last decade the Norwegian development assistance for health has gone through some profound changes, both regarding implementation and organization. Norwegian development assistance for health has been known until recently for its strong focus on health systems, developed through bilateral relationships with developing countries. In addition, strong priority has been given to multilateral institutions, specifically the UN and the WHO. Today, the high priority of the multilateral system remains within Norwegian development assistance for health, yet the manner in which health aid is understood, approached and implemented has changed. Development assistance for health has increasingly become ‘global assistance’. The aim of this thesis is to explore these shifts. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this study, I have used a flexible research design and theoretically, I am using three central concepts from health policy analysis (actor, context, and process) in addition to Foucault’s understanding of modern political power – governmentality.