The UCL Institute for Global Health Symposium, ‘Global Health Governance: Who is accountable to whom?’, took place on 13 May 2008.The symposium explored some of the questions of governance underlying the global health agenda, including:* what is governance and how does it differ from government?* should democracy be an important component of any global governance structure, and if so what sort of democracy is desirable or plausible?* do major philanthropists create a democratic deficit within the global governance of health, given that they provide a large proportion of the global health budget?The symposium took the form of a brief presentation by Professor Richard Bellamy (UCL Political Sciences), setting out some key questions, arguments and themes, followed by a brief presentation by Mike Rowson (UCL Institute of Child Health), summarising what the global-governance arrangements are within health. Panel members discussing the broader implications of global health governance issues were Professor Philippe Sands (UCL Laws) and Professor David Napier (UCL Anthropology).