Health or Wealth during a global pandemic? : An interpretivist analysis of the World Bank Group’s COVID-19 strategy on health.

Sammanfattning: As health transcends all borders so does the power of dominant global actors on health issues. The COVID-19 strategy of the World Bank Group will in this thesis be analyzed to demonstrate the dependency relations constructed through the World Bank Group’s health approach and its relation to Nigeria in particular. By adopting the theoretical perspective of dependency theory by Andre Gunder Frank (1969) this thesis will account for an interpretivist analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. In analyzing the World Bank Group’s projects, loans and conditions this thesis accounts for how the World Bank Group are de-prioritizing health and prioritizing private over public sectors in its approach. The analysis demonstrates how this is identified both in its overall strategy and in the case study of Nigeria. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of the WBG’s main strategy approach and partnership framework with Nigeria it is presented how the neoliberal discourse on health and development in general contributes to dependency relations of its borrowing states. The power of the World Bank Group is identified in its ability to construct such relations through its approach practically and discursively.