Rockefeller, Gates and the Governance of Global Health and Agricultural Development

Rockefeller, Gates and the Governance of Global Health and Agricultural Development Synopsis

Private foundations have become increasingly influential in development activities in the Global South, and none more so than the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, both of which have endowments of over one billion US dollars. This book compares the work of the two foundations in the spheres of global health and agricultural development, demonstrating that they both share a common ability to create and advance knowledge structures in order to catalyze change. A preference for compromise over contestation, coupled with a capacity for enabling innovation in science and governance, has resulted in the integration of Rockefeller and Gates Foundation knowledge structures within international policy arenas.Drawing on extensive empirical evidence and in-depth interviews across the two foundations, this book takes a long-term, global perspective on the origins and significance of the foundations' particular ideas and norms, and how they have come to help to shape global cooperation around health and agriculture in developing countries. The book argues that the agency of the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations provides a new way of conceptualizing knowledge, power and private governance as it relates to the production and provision of public goods.At a time when public-private partnerships are receiving increasing levels of state support and interest, this book will be particularly interesting to researchers of international development, philanthropy, and international relations.

About This Edition