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Background In the nearly half century since it began lending for population projects, the World Bank has become one of the largest financiers of global health projects and programs, a powerful voice in shaping health agendas in global governance spaces, and a mass producer of evidentiary knowledge for its preferred global health interventions. How can social scientists interrogate the role of the World Bank in shaping ‘global health’ in the current era? Main body As a group of historians, social scientists, and public health officials with experience studying the effects of the institution’s investment in health, we identify three challenges to this research. First, a future research agenda requires recognizing that the Bank is not a monolith, but rather has distinct inter-organizational groups that have shaped investment and discourse in complicated, and sometimes contradictory, ways. Second, we must consider how its influence on health policy and investment has changed significantly over time. Third, we must analyze its modes of engagement with other institutions within the global health landscape, and with the private sector. The unique relationships between Bank entities and countries that shape health policy, and the Bank’s position as a center of research, permit it to have a formative influence on health economics as applied to international development. Addressing these challenges, we propose a future research agenda for the Bank’s influence on global health through three overlapping objects of and domains for study: knowledge-based (shaping health policy knowledge), governance-based (shaping health governance), and finance-based (shaping health financing). We provide a review of case studies in each of these categories to inform this research agenda. Conclusions As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, and as state and non-state actors work to build more inclusive and robust health systems around the world, it is more important than ever to consider how to best document and analyze the impacts of Bank’s financial and technical investments in the Global South.

Since December 2005 the GAVI Alliance (GAVI) Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) window has offered predictable funding to developing countries, based on a combined population and economic formula. This is intended to assist them to address system constraints to improved immunization coverage and health care delivery, needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The application process invites countries to prioritize specific system constraints not adequately addressed by other donors, and allows them to allocate their eligible funds accordingly. This article presents an analysis of the first four rounds of countries’ funding applications. These requested funding for a variety of health system initiatives that reflected country-specific requirements, and were not limited to improving immunization coverage. Analyses identified a dominance of operational-level health service provision activities, and an absence of interventions related to demand and financing. While the proposed activities are only now being implemented, the results of this study provide evidence that the open application process employed by the HSS window has led to a shift in analysis and planning—from the programmatic to the systemic—in the countries whose applications have been approved. However, the proposed responses to identified constraints are dominated by short-term operational responses, rather than more complex, longer term approaches to health system strengthening.

Objective: To document the effects of the abolition of user fees on utilization of health services in Uganda with emphasis on poor and vulnerable groups. Methods: A longitudinal study using quantitative and qualitative methods was carried out in 106 health facilities across the country. Health records were reviewed to determine trends in overall utilization patterns and use among vulnerable groups. A modification of wealth ranking as defined by the Uganda Poverty Participatory Assessment Project was used to categorize households by socio-economic status in order to compare utilization by the poor against that of other socio-economic groups. Findings: There was a marked increase in utilization in all population groups that was fluctuating in nature. The increase in utilization varied from 26% in public referral facilities in 2001, rising to 55% in 2002 compared with 2000. The corresponding figures for the lower level facilities were 44% and 77%, respectively. Increase in utilization among the poor was more than for other socio-economic categories. Women utilized health services more than men both before and after cost-sharing. Higher increases in utilization were noted among the over-five age group compared with the under-fives. There were no increases in utilization for preventive and inpatient services. With respect to quality of care, there were fewer drug stock-outs in 2002 compared with 2000 and 2001. There was no deterioration of other indicators such as cleanliness, compound maintenance and staff availability reported. Conclusion: The study suggests that there is a financial barrier created by cost-sharing that decreases access to services, especially among the poor in Uganda. However, further studies are needed to clarify issues of utilization by age and gender.