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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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]

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.

Migration of Health Workers: The WHO Code of Practice and the Global Economic Crisis

This publication provides insights into steps taken to implement the Code globally and it features detailed experiences from 13 countries. It also gives other countries valuable guidance and recommendations on how they, too, can implement the Code of Practice. [adapted from introduction]

Holding a National Summit to Improve Health Outcomes through Health and Mapping Sector Collaboration in the Development of National Geospatial Data Infrastructure: The Nigerian Strategy

This paper provides a description of the summit and offers lessons learned on key aspects of the event, including the post-summit communiqué presented to both executive and legislative arms of the government with the intent of improving the NGDI. This paper also discusses progress on health and mapping sector collaboration and coordination since the summit.[from abstract]

NHS productivity challenge Experience from the Front Line

The unprecedented slowdown in the growth of NHS funding in England since 2010 required the NHS to pursue the most ambitious programme of productivity improvement since its foundation…But the strongest pressure has been applied and felt at the front line, by hospitals and other local service providers, faced with squeezing more and more value from every health care pound. [adapted from abstract]

“In the driver’s seat”: The Health Sector Strategic Master Plan as an Instrument for Aid Coordination in Mongolia

This research explores the extent to which the [Health Sector Strategic Master Plan (HSSMP)] process served as a mechanism for effective aid coordination while promoting ownership and capacity building and the lessons learned for the wider international development community. [adapted from abstract]

Enhancing Medicine Price Transparency through Price Information Mechanisms

This article discusses in what ways medicine price information mechanisms can contribute to increased price transparency and how this may affect access to medicines for developing countries. [from abstract]

Interprofessional Education for Whom? — Challenges and Lessons Learned from Its Implementation in Developed Countries and Their Application to Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

Evidence is available on the potential efficacy of interprofessional education (IPE) to foster interprofessional cooperation, improve professional satisfaction, and improve patient care. We conducted this review to examine challenges of implementing IPE to suggest possible pathways to overcome the anticipated challenges in developing countries. [adapted from abstract]

Household perceptions and their implications for enrolment in the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana

This paper identifies, ranks and compares perceptions of insured and uninsured households in Ghana on health care providers (quality of care, service delivery adequacy, staff attitudes), health insurance schemes (price, benefits and convenience) and community attributes (health ‘beliefs and attitudes’ and peer pressure). [from abstract]

The Multiple Meanings of Global Health Governance: A Call for Conceptual Clarity

This paper is based on the results of a separate scoping study of peer reviewed GHG research from 1990 onwards which undertook keyword searches of public health and social science databases. Additional works, notably books, book chapters and scholarly articles, not currently indexed, were identified through Web of Science citation searches.More specifically, we identify what is claimed as constituting GHG, how it is problematised, the institutional features of GHG, and what forms and functions are deemed ideal. [adapted from abstract]

Applying Stakeholder Leadership Group Guidelines in Ghana: A Case Study

This case study discusses the steps taken to revitalize the Ghana Health Workforce Observatory through the application of fuidelines for forming and sustaining human resources for health (HRH) stakeholder leadership groups. The guidelines are aimed at HRH leaders or practitioners at the country level who see a pressing need for a stakeholder leadership group to address a key HRH problem or set of problems. [adapted from summary]

Health Systems in Transition: Learning from Experience

The paper outlines a conceptual framework that integrates the key strategies that must be addressed and linked if policy-makers are to create the kinds of health care system to which the citizens of [central and eastern Europe and Eurasia] are entitled. It examines how financing, coordinated service delivery and quality measures matter independently, and it highlights the need to interweave them effectively with citizen and community participation mechanisms and a far-reaching concern for public health. It also reviews the complex issues that hinder or help the implementation of reforms and suggests how an understanding of context, stakeholders and capacity will be critical to delivering change.