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When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness
[Governing the world at a distance: The practice of global benchmarking]

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  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

Abstract

Recent literature on indicators as technology of global governance has shown the power of numbers in shaping knowledge and policy priorities. But not all indicators have powerful effects; some remain invisible. Are such indicators an obverse of powerful indicators? Are the same process of indirect exercise of power to indirectly achieve social and economic effects at work? This paper explores the case of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 3.d.1 for the target to build national capacity for pandemic preparedness (target 3d) as a case study of invisible indicators. This indicator has had little traction, despite its relevance in the context of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The paper explores the reasons that explain this paradox through the framework of epistemic infrastructures. It argues that the indicator—the State Party Self-Assessment Report (SPAR) score—was an inconvenient tool for the powerful actors in the global health community as it turned out to be an extremely poor predictor of COVID-19 response performance. It would have exposed not only the failings of the powerful countries that lead the policy agenda for pandemic preparedness but also the legitimacy of their expertise and the paradigm of global health security as an approach to governing health risks. The analysis highlights the tight relationship between power and the use of indicators in global governance. While indicators are increasingly used by powerful actors to reframe policy narratives, the indicator of pandemic preparedness has been kept invisible to maintain their existing framing. It thus illustrates the resilience of power structures in epistemic infrastructures.

Suggested Citation

  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2022. "When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness [Governing the world at a distance: The practice of global benchmarking]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 528-540.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:4:p:528-540.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/polsoc/puac024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sakiko Fukuda‐Parr & Desmond McNeill, 2019. "Knowledge and Politics in Setting and Measuring the SDGs: Introduction to Special Issue," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 5-15, January.
    2. Sally Engle Merry, 2019. "The Sustainable Development Goals Confront the Infrastructure of Measurement," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 146-148, January.
    3. Nina Haug & Lukas Geyrhofer & Alessandro Londei & Elma Dervic & Amélie Desvars-Larrive & Vittorio Loreto & Beate Pinior & Stefan Thurner & Peter Klimek, 2020. "Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1303-1312, December.
    4. Marlee Tichenor & Sally E Merry & Sotiria Grek & Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures [The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 431-444.
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    Cited by:

    1. Messner, Wolfgang, 2023. "The contingency impact of culture on health security capacities for pandemic preparedness: A moderated Bayesian inference analysis," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    2. Marlee Tichenor & Sally E Merry & Sotiria Grek & Justyna Bandola-Gill, 2022. "Global public policy in a quantified world: Sustainable Development Goals as epistemic infrastructures [The ethics of a formula: Calculating a financial-humanitarian price for water]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 431-444.

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