Stakeholders

Global Governance and the Limits of Health Security

The time has come to move from a focus on health security and international crisis response, to a system of global
governance capable of addressing infectious disease outbreaks in an orderly, organised and sustainable manner. [from abstract]

Strengthening Health Systems for Resilience

In countries with high levels of poverty or instability and with poor health system management and governance, people are highly vulnerable to shocks associated with ill health, including major epidemics. An effective health system can help build their resilience by reducing exposure to infection and minimising the impact of sickness on livelihoods and economic development. [from introduction]

Health in All Policies: Training Manual

The purpose of this manual is to provide a resource for training to increase understanding of Health in All Policies (HiAP) by health and other professionals. It is anticipated that the material in this manual will form the basis of two- or three-day workshops, which will: Build capacity to promote, implement and evaluate HiAP; Encourage engagement and collaboration across sectors; Facilitate the exchange of experiences and lessons learned; Promote regional and global collaboration on HiAP; and Promote dissemination of skills to develop training courses for trainers. [from overview]

Back to Basics: Designing an Appropriate Health Financing System

In striving for Universal Health Coverage, Jo Kemp advocates for a well-rounded assessment of health financing options. [from resource]

Systems thinking for health systems strengthening

Systems thinking provides a deliberate and comprehensive suite of tools and approaches to map, measure and understand
these dynamics. In this Report, we propose “Ten Steps to Systems Thinking” for real-world guidance in applying such
an approach in the health system. [from summary]

Global Governance for Health

The authors address the issue of governance in health from a critical standpoint, taking globalization as the core focus. They discuss the issue of governance in health based on the trend of stimulating world production/consumption in accordance with the interests of developed countries. [from abstract]

Community Participation in Formulating the Post-2015 Health and Development Goal Agenda: Reflections of a Multi-Country Research Collaboration

While the Millennium Development Goals focused on redressing extreme poverty and its antecedents for people living in developing countries, the post-2015 agenda seeks to redress inequity worldwide, regardless of a country’s development status. Furthermore, to rectify the UN’s top-down approach toward the Millennium Development Goals’ formulation, widespread negotiations are underway that seek to include the voices of people and communities from around the globe to ground each post-2015 development goal.

Making the Post-MDG Global Health Goals Relevant for Highly Inequitable Societies: Findings From A Consultation with Marginalized Populations in Guatemala

Achieving health goals in a context of deep-rooted inequality and marginalization requires going beyond the simple expansion of health services and working with developing trusting relationships between health service providers and community members. Involving community members in decision-making processes that shape policies will contribute to a
larger process of community empowerment and democratization. [from abstract]

A New Methodology for Assessing Health Policy and Systems Research and Analysis Capacity in African Universities

The importance of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR?+?A) has been increasingly recognised, but it is still unclear how most effectively to strengthen the capacity of the different organisations involved in this field. Universities are particularly crucial but the expansive literature on capacity development has little to offer the unique needs of HPSR?+?A activity within universities, and often overlooks the pivotal contribution of capacity assessments to capacity strengthening. [from abstract]

An Investigation of Staff Turnover at a Private Healthcare Provider in the Kavango Region, Namibia

The study sought to investigate the factors contributing to the high turnover of clinical staff at two Catholic Health Services (CHS) hospitals of Andara and Nyangana in the Kavango region of Namibia. The conceptual framework, factors related to the decision to stay in or leave rural and remote areas, was adapted from Henderson and Tulloch (2008) and guided this study. [from abstract]

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was established in 2000 as a network of technical institutions, research institutes, universities, international health organisations and technical networks willing to contribute and participate in internationally coordinated responses to infectious disease outbreaks. It reflected a recognition of the need to strengthen and coordinate rapid mobilisation of experts in responding to international outbreaks and to overcome the sometimes chaotic and fragmented operations characterising previous responses. [from abstract]

Health Professional School Leadership and Health Sector Reform, Performance, and Practice

Health professional schools are important in that they produce health workers, the major input in the health system. Not only are labor costs a central part of the health budget, but the majority of all health system costs are determined by health worker variables. The practice behaviors and personal preferences of health workers will determine the communities in which they work and whether they practice primary or specialty care. In some countries, the amount of study and the magnitude of educational debt with which health workers graduate also significantly affect their practice behavior.

Does More Equitable Governance Lead to More Equitable Health Care? A Case Study Based on the Implementation of Health Reform in Aboriginal Health Australia

There is growing evidence that providing increased voice to vulnerable or disenfranchised populations is important to improving health equity. In this paper we will examine the engagement of Aboriginal community members and community controlled organisations in local governance reforms associated with the Aboriginal Health National Partnership Agreements (AHNPA) in Australia and its impact on the uptake of health assessments. [from abstract]

Goal Setting and Knowledge Generation through Health Policy and Systems Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The importance of health policy and systems research (HPSR) and its role in aiding health system reforms has been increasingly recognized in recent years within the World Health Organization (WHO). An assessment of the 71 WHO Country Cooperation Strategies (CCS) that are publicly available and were published in English in 2012 was completed to determine the extent to which HPSR goals are incorporated at the global level. A review was then conducted using a Medline database search to determine the number of articles published by countries with HPSR goals. [from abstract]

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction and Its Relationship on Career Development Among Nursing Staff within a Public Hospital in South Africa

South Africa has a dual health system, namely, the public health sector that includes government health institutions, serving mostly the lower income population and the private health sector that serves those who can afford care from their own income. The public sector is responsible for 82 percent of the population and only accounts for 40 percent of the government health expenditure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate job satisfaction levels among nursing staff within a public hospital in Southern Gauteng. [adapted from abstract]

Capacity Building of Institutions in the Health Sector: Review of Experiences in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.

This report documents the efforts and contributions made by USAID through the Innovations in Family Planning Services (IFPS) Project towards capacity building and strengthening of public and private institutions in the health sector
in India. The report highlights the support rendered at the national level and in three Indian states: Uttar
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand. [from introduction]

Innovations to Reduce Hospital Readmissions and Avoidable Hospitalizations from Nursing Homes: Implications for the Health Workforce

The study was conducted to better understand the roles and functions of the health workforce responsible for managing patient transitions to and from hospitals and nursing homes in New York’s downstate region to reduce the number of readmissions and to improve care transitions. [adapted from introduction]

African Participation and Partnership in Performan-Based Financing: A Case Study in Global Health Policy

Participation is a key policy concept in global health, and relates to the ability of stakeholders to engage with and shape health policy at four intersecting levels: Local, national, regional and global. Such engagement remains the key normative aim behind debates about furthering more equitable health diplomacy and has, as a result, been increasingly integrated into the agenda of global agencies, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the World Bank. [from executive summary]

Knowing the Right to Mental Health: The Social Organization of Research for Global Health Governance

This institutional ethnography(IE) explores the right to health in the international mental health field, and a subfield concerned with equitable access to treatment in developing countries and for marginalized people elsewhere. Indicators of mental health and development and the “scaling up” of corresponding treatment and services goals have been at the forefront in this field that is known discursively as “Global Mental Health” (GMH) [from abstract]

What’s the World Health Organization For? Final Report from the Centre on Global Health Security Working Group on Health Governance

The Chatham House Working Group on Health Governance was formed to consider, in the first instance, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the international system that supports global health. This was done in the knowledge that the WHO had recently embarked on a programme of reform, which had its roots in the acute funding pressures that it was experiencing. It was therefore
envisaged as a complementary exercise to the internal reform process. [from preface]

Role of Private Sector for HRH (Human Resource for Health) Production in Nepal

Human Resource for Health production was started in Nepal in a limited way some eighty years ago and picked up a
somewhat faster pace from the 1950s as per the requirements at that time. The establishment of the Institute of Medicine
led to some diversification but it was only after 1990 that there has been a much larger involvement of the private sector
in the production of Human Resources for Health. Although a number of categories have been listed in this article, the
position of doctors, dentists and nurses has been dealt with in more detail. [from abstract]

Private-Sector Participation in Preservice Health Education

Private health professional schools are expanding rapidly. With health training needs increasing and developing country budgets not keeping pace, private-sector schools will soon produce more health workers than public-sector institutions. This free eLearning course explores critical success factors in private-sector health education and training that are also relevant to public institutions. This course is targeted at learners who are directly engaged in private health learning institutions as well those who are charged with making health and education public policy.

Health Diplomacy: A New Approach to the Muslim World?

Here we suggest several different mechanisms through which such links could be developed or enhanced, including: provision of relevant health solutions, applied research, cultural alignment and the development of collaborative networks. The Islamic tradition promotes the practice of medicine as a service to humanity. Physical and spiritual wellbeing are intimately related in popular Muslim consciousness. Thoughtful Health Diplomacy therefore has the potential to bridge the perceived divides between Western and predominantly Muslim nations. [from abstract]

Accelerating Learning for Pro-Poor Health Markets

The paper proposes experimentation with country-specific market data platforms that can integrate relevant evidence from different data sources, and simultaneously exploring strategies to secure better information on private providers and health markets. [from abstract]

Roundtable discussion: What is the Future Role of the Private Sector in Health?

This roundtable discussion offers diverse perspectives from a range of stakeholders - a health funder, a representative from an implementing organization, a national-level policy-maker, and an expert working in a large multi-national company - on what the future may hold for the private sector in health. [from introduction]

Innovative Financing for Preservice Education of Health Professionals

In an environment of limited resources, educational institutions must be creative in finding financial resources. This free eLearning course provides an overview of creative financing mechanisms designed to help a health professional education institution reach its funding goals. Participants will learn how to select, prioritize, and implement new financing mechanisms. [from publisher]

Does Involvement of Local NGOs Enhance Public Service Delivery? Cautionary Evidence from a Malaria-Prevention Evaluation in India

Using data from an experimental supportive intervention to India’s malaria control program, this paper studies the impact of leveraging local non-state capacity to promote mosquito net usage and recommended fever care-seeking patterns. The supportive activities were conducted simultaneously by three nongovernmental organizations in two endemic districts in the state of Orissa. The study finds that program impact varied significantly by location. [from abstract]

Challenges to Implementing a National Health Information System in Cameroon: Perspectives of Stakeholders

The purpose of this study was to assess the implementation of the NHIS by documenting experiences of individual stakeholders, and to suggest recommendations for improvement. We reviewed relevant documents and conducted face-to-face interviews (N=4) with individuals directly involved with data gathering, reporting and storage. [from abstract]

Creating a Charter of Collaboration for International University Partnerships: The Elmina Declaration for Human Resources for Health

The project had four objectives: to create a “charter for collaboration” (CFC), to improve data-driven policy making, to enhance health care provider education, and to increase research capacity. [from abstract]

The WHO Global Code of Practice: A Useful Guide for Recruiting Health Care Professionals? Lessons from Germany and Beyond

As an alternative to categorical bans on recruitment from entire countries, we propose alternative frameworks for approaching recruitment regulation. We offer examples of these global lessons from the German context.