The objects of global health policy: Turning knowledge into evidence at the World Health Organization

The transformation of public health knowledge and experience into evidence is fundamental to the work of the World Health Organization (WHO). A key question is how (or if) the WHO produces policies that are globally relevant through this process. How are public health knowledge, evidence, and experience from 194 member states and a wide range of other stakeholders incorporated into policies that are meant to be universally applicable? I examine this question by comparing the drafting of two WHO policies: the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (1981) and the Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children (2010). I examine how the policy process at the WHO revolves around the transformation of public health experience and knowledge into evidence. I look specifically at this process, considering the use of evidence for agenda-setting and as a rationale for action, controversies about evidence, and how the ‘best available evidence’ promotes or limits certain policy options.