Transnational actors and the power of knowledge in healthcare financing policy: The World Bank’s role as a problem broker

This article examines the World Bank’s role as a ‘problem broker’ in national policymaking, specifically its influence on healthcare financing policy, using the case of Albania’s healthcare financing reforms (1995–2013). While the Bank is widely acknowledged as a ‘Knowledge Bank’, its role in problematising national issues remains underexplored. Employing qualitative methods, including content and frame analysis of Technical Assistance reports, the study explores how the Bank’s problem-brokering activities and its framing of reform issues shaped national policy actors’ perceptions. The analysis highlights the Bank’s influence in guiding national policy agendas through problematisation, extending its influence beyond the traditional role of a ‘proposal actor’. This study enriches our understanding of the Bank’s ideational, non-coercive influence in national policy arenas, complementing existing literature on its conditional and coercive power.