TY - JOUR T1 - Health system governance: a triangle of rules JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003598 VL - 5 IS - 8 SP - e003598 AU - Seye Abimbola Y1 - 2020/08/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/5/8/e003598.abstract N2 - One well-known challenge of working in multidisciplinary fields (such as global health and health systems) is finding a language that is understandable, recognisable and useable by people from varying backgrounds. Without such language, it is difficult to have discussions that are necessary for multidisciplinary fields to grow and achieve their purpose. Forging a common language requires deliberate effort. Having a widely accepted framework can help, especially when accompanied by theories that connect the categories within the framework.1 Even then, some issues or subfields require working at a common language more than others — for example, governance, which, as far as words and concepts go, is remarkably nebulous.2In this edition of BMJ Global Health, Bigdeli et al3 offer a promising framework; a ‘triangle of persons’, if you will, to explore hitherto ‘missing links’ in health system governance. Each of the three nodes of this triangle is occupied by one category of persons, that is, policy-makers, providers and people. This triangle began its life in the 2004 World Development Report,4 as a map of stakeholders involved in accountability relations in the health system. It has gone through several iterations, interpretations and applications.5–7 However, the current ‘triangle of persons’ is particularly clear, detailed and succinct. It explores what happens between the nodes. And more than previous iterations, it also explores what happens within each node.In an accompanying paper, Meessen celebrates a welcome reboot in the discourse on and study of health system governance in global health8; a reboot that: (1) de-emphasises normative preoccupations and instead emphasises empirical explorations of health system governance; (2) makes governance more concrete by redefining it in terms of ‘making, changing, monitoring and enforcing the formal and informal rules’2 that govern ‘collective action and decision making in … ER -