Shared Responsibility
All actors sharing responsibilities necessary to achieve common goals
WHAT IS IT?
Shared responsibility means that actors' respective responsibilities collectively lead to common social goals. Actors agree to the shared goal of health capabilities for all and are responsible for doing what is due to them, allocated according to the principle of optimal allocation of roles and responsibilities. Community membership and shared values, ideas, and norms create responsibilities for all members. Individuals and groups are responsible for the joint endeavor to which each contributes. However, the shared responsibility in SHG is also different from the broader, social existentialist notion of shared responsibility. The existentialist notion maintains that social responsibility has a more diffuse and general structure, requiring one to distance oneself from evil by not condoning it even when there is nothing one can do to prevent the evil itself. Under SHG, actors can and must do something – they must pursue their respective roles and responsibilities effectively and efficiently. It is a conception with an emphasis on specific responsibilities that have actual impacts on the shared goal.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Shared responsibility is vital to coordinating health governance. For example, at the global level, past successes have displayed the essential common features of shared responsibility, accountability, and voluntary cooperation. Shared responsibilities can generate duties and obligations because of one’s commitment to shared goals. This strengthens the governance regime by connecting the goals with concrete actions, thereby making it more trustworthy for those participating in the system. Shared responsibility is a duty under the Health Capability Paradigm (HCP) and Provincial Globalism (PG), as the duty to reduce inequities includes an imperative to appropriately allocate responsibilities for cooperation and coordination, and for the actors to successfully fulfill respective roles and responsibilities.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
SHG takes a balanced view towards the distribution of responsibilities. The principle of shared responsibility allocates responsibilities to global, local, and individual actors based on their individual functions and capabilities, as specified in the principle of optimal allocation of roles and responsibilities. For example, due to their unique functionality supported by legal legitimacy, countries will have a great share of responsibilities. Additionally, under SHG, global actors have duties to assist countries in achieving their health objectives; if countries cannot reach proposed objectives on their own, the global community will help. The responsibilities of other private actors such as NGOs and corporations are similarly determined based on their functions. Individuals also have duties under shared responsibility; they need to learn the best use of their health agency and optimally exercise it. All these actors, both collective and individual, need to commit to the successful pursuit of their roles and responsibilities as a part of the joint action towards the shared goal they agree to.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
The effectuation of responsibility allocation follows the effectuation of other principles, such as recognizing the value of health capability for all, establishing shared values, principles, and norms, and private-public norm alignment. This is a necessary result of SHG's commitment to health justice. Central institutions like the Global Health Constitution, the Global Institute of Health and Medicine, and the Global Health Council reinforce and actualize SHG principles at the global level; for example, by collecting empirical facts about each actor’s potential functions to allocate responsibilities.