UNASUR Health: A Quiet Revolution in Health Diplomacy in South America

MARÍA BELÉN HERRERO; DIANA TUSSIE

Global Social Policy

SAGE

Año: 2015 vol. 15 p. 261 - 277

1468-0181

Since the creation of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), health policies became a strategic factor in South America to collectively balance the legacy of neoliberal policies in the region. The aim of this paper is first to describe the social, political and economic processes that explain the emergence of UNASUR and its focus on social policy-through health care. We then analyze how by virtue of UNASUR´s Health Council, healthcare became the spearhead of cooperation giving way to novel forms of diplomacy. In so doing, the paper contributes to a broader understanding of the regional health diplomacy and the process of unasurization of health policies as the process of building a new health framework.