State Remains

This chapter focuses on the proliferation of transnational public-private partnerships (PPPs) in international health during the past decade, a phenomenon that is intertwined with the contemporary expansion of infectious disease research and control efforts across the Global South. Drawing on ethnography from a malaria research program in Tanzania, the chapter shows that, somewhat contrary to critical arguments that regard PPPs as Trojan horses of industry interests in domains that should remain public and linked to the nation-state, these partnerships can serve many different interests. Because of their ambiguities, they can be used by nation-state actors and agencies to pursue even nationalist goals, fostering a para-statal space that enables the Tanzanian state to reassert authority corroded during the preceding era of neoliberal reforms. Deviating from patterns observed in other LICs, the appropriation of partnership in Tanzania points to the variable and sometimes surprising forms that 'para-statal' spaces can take across different contexts.