Global Strategy Lab
The Global Strategy Lab is an interdisciplinary research program that studies how global institutions, instruments and initiatives could be better designed to address pressing global health challenges. According to its website, the Global Strategy Lab is directed by Steven J. Hoffman and based in the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. The Lab focuses on three priorities:[1]
- Generating evidence about different global strategies, including when, how, and why they can be used to tackle transnational health threats and social inequalities
- Developing analytic, empirical, and big data methods for evaluating complex global strategies, and using them to draw new insights about how to implement global agreements, goals, and policies
- Translating research into evidence-based collective action by working with governments, civil society organizations, and international agencies in developing their global strategies and training the next generation of strategic thinkers and leaders in global governance, law, and politics.
Headquarters
The Global Strategy Lab is based in the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, which is the largest law school in Canada and the largest bilingual law school in the world.
Objectives
The Global Strategy Lab was designed to address knowledge gaps in global health governance, law and politics. The Lab is intensely interdisciplinary, working at the nexus of epidemiology, health policy, informatics, international relations, law, medicine, political science, sociology, statistics and other disciplines. The Lab includes many faculty scholars, full-time research staff, and both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as an international advisory board. Over 40 people are currently involved with the Lab in various capacities.
Projects
The Global Strategy Lab's work centres around three core areas: 1) global health law; 2) global governance; and 3) institutional design. According to its website, external funding has been provided for various projects (listed below):[2]
Strengthening International Collaboration for Capitalizing on Cost-Effective and Life-Saving Commodities (i4C)
The aim of this project is to determine how international collaboration can be strengthened to scale-up cost-effective and life-saving commodities, especially for the world's poorest women and children. Eight policy interventions directed at global health governance institutions will be evaluated. Five aim to improve global access to existing, life-saving commodities. and these include: 1) evaluating the impact of free trade agreements and regulatory harmonization; 2) examining how emerging economies (e.g. Brazil, India, and China) promote access on the international stage to provide learning for other developing economies; 3) assessing advocacy strategies for promoting evidence-informed policymaking; 4) evaluating existing and new global health governance architecture's contributions to improving access; and 5) considering the role of existing and potentially new international legal mechanisms. Three aim to improve prioritization, financing, and incentives for global innovation of new, life-saving commodities. These specifically includes: 6) developing a multi-criteria priority classification model for value-based R&D investments; 7) proposing an R&D investment prioritization framework; and 8) examining how the challenge of antimicrobial resistance is deepened by existing global governance failures and how reforms can address it.
Systematic Analysis of Global, Regional and National Trends in Tobacco Consumption (1985-2013) and Impact Evaluation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The global tobacco epidemic is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. Although many efforts have been made to support global tobacco control, relatively little information is easily available about the nature of the epidemic at a global scale, with most existing databases limited to a small number of countries and years. This lack of readily-available data has impeded efforts to understand the tobacco epidemic and evaluate tobacco control interventions’ effects. Many interventions have been shown to be efficacious at a national level, but their global effectiveness has largely been presumed.
The Lab seeks to address these gaps by: 1) systematically reviewing and analyzing global tobacco consumption data available from 1985- 2013; 2) developing a publicly available database of these data; 3) analyzing global trends in tobacco consumption across region, income-economy and other stratifying factors; 4) evaluating the conditional effects of the 2003 international tobacco control treaty (FCTC) on state policy and tobacco consumption with a robust quasi-experimental design; 5) estimating the impact of the FCTC on smoking-related deaths; and 6) assessing the cost-effectiveness of the FCTC as measured in per years of life saved.
National Dialogue on Canada’s Role in Global Health and Development
Youth leaders – who represent the future of Canadian society – are often not engaged as potential users of research evidence. Youth leaders represent thousands of other young people as the presidents of student governments, health professional student associations and research networks. These students can help ensure that research informs policy directions for Canada. Accordingly, the Lab is proposing to host national youth dialogue to foster the uptake, application and dissemination of research evidence on Canada’s role in global health and development among 25 of the country’s top youth leaders. Students will discuss the problem, policy options and implementation considerations. The dialogue captures an important voice that Canadian officials have not yet heard and supports youth-driven outputs (e.g., a Youth Charter, letters to Ministers, op-eds, social media advocacy campaigns). It also develops a new community platform for youth to contribute to future health discussions with research evidence rooted at the core. A national youth dialogue represents an important first step toward cultivating a culture of evidence-informed decision-making and knowledge translation among Canada’s future health leaders.
Essential Medicines Procurement
This study aims to synthesize research evidence concerning the global status quo for essential medicines procurement on five key topics: (1) the scope and selection of essential medicines; (2) procurement approaches available to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); (3) the role of intellectual property in procurement; (4) defining and outlining the use of compulsory licensing; and (5) industry’s role in promoting access to essential medicines. In order to illustrate these issues in a real-world context, the Lab will utilize HIV/AIDS as a recurring example.
Strengthening Canadian Health Systems’ Capacity to Respond to Emerging Global Issues
This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of policymakers, healthcare leaders and researchers to study pandemic responses and identify ways of strengthening health system governance arrangements for future pandemics. The project will involve 2 stages: (1) A preparatory study will be conducted to learn from recent experiences with pandemics and probe current health system capacities to respond to similar outbreaks; and (2) A stakeholder dialogue will then be convened to provide government officials, healthcare leaders and researchers the opportunity to bring their tacit knowledge, views and experiences to bear on the challenge.
By continually engaging the public and key decision-makers, and disseminating the knowledge gained from this project through multiple channels, the Lab hopes that its proposed activities will assist decision-makers to develop their own policies that are rooted, from the very start, in the best available evidence and greatest possible range of insights. This research supports efforts to strengthen health systems for emerging global issues whereby decision-makers can more quickly access the best-available data, make better decisions, and coordinate with partners.
Learning from SARS and H1N1 to Strengthen Health System Governance, Information Sharing and International Cooperation during Health Emergencies
There is so much attention given to preparing for the next pandemic, yet relatively little focus is given to the health system governance arrangements needed to mount an appropriate response. In addition to antiviral medicines and vaccines, effective pandemic responses depend on governments and healthcare facilities to obtain, analyze, share and act upon the latest information and coordinate their actions with domestic and international partners. Effective health system arrangements for making tough decisions, sharing information and cooperating globally are particularly important during the initial days of a pandemic which are characterized by uncertainty, confusion, fear and extremely high-stakes.
The Lab seeks to bring together an interdisciplinary team of researchers, policymakers and healthcare leaders to study national, regional and global responses to SARS and H1N1 during their first 100 days so as to strengthen health system governance arrangements for future health emergencies. The project will also allow the research team to survey available data and request privately held documents for study. The Lab hopes to include six types of documents: 1) bilateral communications; 2) multilateral communications; 3) government analyses of communications; 4) public announcements; 5) scientific messages; and 6) media reports. In addition to requesting private documents, the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks will also be mined for relevant content. These initial data gathering and partnership efforts will be focused on North America, namely Canada, United States, Mexico, Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization.
Initiatives
Global Health Law Clinic[3]
The Global Health Law Clinic is a unique experiential learning opportunity for law students at the University of Ottawa who are interested in global health law and policy issues. Student fellows of the Clinic provide real-time and real-world research, analysis, and advice on global health issues to United Nations agencies, national governments, and civil society organizations. This allows student fellows to effect positive change, obtain hands-on experience, be exposed to career opportunities, promote global social justice through team-based activities, and nurture global citizenship.
i4C Consortium
The Global Strategy Lab has collaborated with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to launch a consortium of researchers and partnering institutions focused on "Strengthening International Collaboration for Capitalizing on Cost-Effective and Life-Saving Commodities (i4C)". The i4C has received a four-year operating grant of 24,662,003 Norwegian Kronor (~$4.6 million CAD) from the Research Council of Norway and additional co-funding from others. In order to pursue this goal, a globally integrated team is evaluating eight policy interventions directed at global health governance institutions. Refer to the projects ("i4C") section for more detail.
Global Justice 2015 Conference
A two-day conference co-organized by Steven J. Hoffman (University of Ottawa), Aidan Hollis (University of Calgary), Thomas Pogge (Yale University), and Mitu Sengupta (Ryerson University), focused on the challenges presented by the Intellectual Property Rights regime to improving health and access to medicines.[4] It also explored existing policy initiatives such as a new mechanism for incentivizing pharmaceutical innovation – the Health Impact Fund.
Publications
The Lab has published in various mediums, including academic journals, books, reports, and news media. The Lab's website lists its many publications here.
Partners
According to its website, the Lab collaborates with leading scholars in the field of international health and law and serves as a flagship for collaborative multi-centre research, education, and policy initiatives. Current partners include Chatham House, Cochrane Collaboration, Harvard Global Health Institute, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Vox Media, McMaster Health Forum, and World Health Organization.