Bargaining Power of African Countries in the World Health Organisation: A Simulated Economic Analysis of its Effectiveness

Abstract This paper proposes levers for improving the bargaining power of African region countries at the World Health Organisation. Using data from World Health Assembly reports, and economics approaches, the paper first calculates the Bargaining Power Index (BPI) of these countries using the Shapley-Shubik method. It also proceeds to a series of simulations by assigning weighting coefficients to each Bargaining Power Index dimension, and finally analyses the correlation among BPI and these dimensions. Results show that (a) African region has the lowest BPI in the organisation regardless of the weight assigned to each dimension thus materializing its obvious inability to maximise the likelihood of asserting its preferences by making its voice heard. However, better prospects are possible when the BPI is disaggregated into its two components: The Economic Power Index and the Decision Power Index, and when the elements of these components are improved. JEL Code: C18, C71, D7, I1