This paper explores the role of knowledge, standards, and metrics in global health. Our point of departure is the observation that the emergence of 'global health'as a domain of research, policy, and practice in the last three decades or so has coincided with an increased interest in the validation and use of measures of health, such as the Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY), in monitoring and assessing health equity across territories and populations. This 'elective affinity'between global health and health metrics has become the focus of scholarly