This paper presents a discussion about the international agencies' contributions to health policy during the 1990's. The international agencies are considered members of an international development assistance community, which includes the United Nations agencies and funds, the World Bank and the regional development banks, and the national agencies for international co-operation. The international agencies seem to be more and more engaged in offering ideas of the more adequate policies to the so-called developing countries. The narrative presented here points out the dimension of the phenomenon of the offer of ideas yet not much discussed in literature: that these ideas can be understood within the dynamics of competition and co-operation in the international development assistance community. With the publication of Investing in Health, in 1993, the World Bank turned to be one of the most important agencies in the discussion of international health issues. But by the end of the decade, the World Health Organization tried to become an important agency in giving advice to govermments about the national health systems' reforms. The article discusses the more important issues presented in the documents of both agencies.
International agencies; World Bank; World Health Organization; Health policy