Big business and public health - partners or adversaries?

We are so often told our most intractable public health problems – among them preventable disease – will be solved through public-private partnerships, with all stakeholders working together on the problem. But is it time to challenge the partnership paradigm and the popular narratives that sustain it?

Prof. Jonathan Marks will present arguments from his book, The Perils of Partnership, in which he argues that public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder initiatives create "webs of influence" that undermine the integrity of public health agencies, distort public health research and policy, and reinforce the framing of public health problems and their solutions in ways that are least threatening to the commercial interests of corporate "partners".

He will describe how multinational corporations develop different types of influence and examine how public bodies can and should develop counter-strategies to insulate themselves from such influence.

Dr. Melissa Mialon (Inserm and Trinity Business School) will present initial research on the corporate political activity of the food industry in Ireland and present solutions to address that activity across industries.

Monika Kosinska will join us online. She is the World Health Organization(WHO)’s Global Lead on Economic & Commercial Determinants of Health and will present WHO’s top policies to address the Commercial Determinants of Health.

Prof. Neville Cox will chair the session. Neville is a Professor of Law and Morality in Trinity College Dublin and Registrar of the university.

Prof. Norah Campbell and Janis Morrissey will open and close the session. Norah is Associate Professor of Marketing whose research and expertise is in the commercial determinants of health. Janis is Director of Health Promotion, Information & Training at the Irish Heart Foundation. She convened and is chair of the newly formed Health Promotion Alliance Ireland, an all-island coalition with a shared interest in advocating for major policy change to promote the primary prevention of chronic disease.

Will there be a recording of the event?

To facilitate open discussion, no recording of the event will be made.

Conflict of Interest Statement

This event is organised by the Healthy Trinity: Commercial Determinants of Health Lab as part of Trinity Sustainability.

In the context of the Lab, conflicts of interest are focused on the unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs), primarily the tobacco and vaping, alcohol, food, gambling and fossil fuel industries. Policy development in the area of unhealthy commodities is a 'contested' space, as evidence informed health policy is often subject to a strong counter-narrative from both UCIs themselves, and their surrogates, in the shape of social aspect, public relations organisations (SAPROS).

UCIs seek to shape policy directly via lobbying and deploy SAPROs to activate third party engagement via civil society and public sector agencies. As a result, it is important to differentiate between agencies working wholly in the public interest from those representing or partially representing a sectoral or private interest.

In 2021, the World Health Organization initiated a new programme of action, the Economic and Commercial Determinants of Health. Mitigating conflicts of interest is an aspect of this work. (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/commercial-determinants-of-health). The Lab is pleased to respond to this WHO programme.

The Lab recognises the positive contribution to societal health and wellbeing that most commercial actors make and their important role in the provision of fair employment and good working conditions and the growing commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Before registering, you will be asked to confirm you are attending this event wholly in the public interest and are not representing a sectoral or private interest.

Learn more about Commercial Determinants of Health

We recommend Nason Maani's podcast Money, Power, Health as a great way to learn about Commercial Determinants of Health. This World Health Organization seminar is excellent. If you prefer reading than listening or watching, this Lancet series is an important read.

Contact

If you'd like to stay in touch, email [email protected].

Host or Publisher Healthy Trinity, Trinity College Dublin