Governing Health Systems in Africa

Governing Health Systems in Africa
Author: Martyn Sama
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2008-03-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 2869784031

Drawing on various disciplinary perspectives, this book re-focuses the debate on what makes a good health system, with a view to clarifying the uses of social science research in thinking about health care issues in Africa. The explosion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the persistence of malaria as a major killer, and the resurgence of diseases like tuberculosis which were previously under control, have brought about changes in the health system, with implications for its governance, especially in view of the diminished capacity of the public health facilities to cope with a complex range of expanded needs. Government responsibilities and objectives in the health sector have been redefined, with private sector entities (both for profit and not-for profit) playing an increasingly visible role in health care provisions. The reasons for collaborative patterns vary, but chronic under-funding of publicly financed health services is often an important factor. Processes of decentralisation and health sector reforms have had mixed effects on health care system performance; while private health insurance markets and private clinics are pointers to a growing stratification of the health market, in line with the intensified income and social differentiation that has occurred over the last two decades.These developments call for health sector reforms.

Historical Perspectives on the State of Health and Health Systems in Africa, Volume II

Historical Perspectives on the State of Health and Health Systems in Africa, Volume II
Author: Mario J. Azevedo
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 3319325647

This book focuses on Africa’s challenges, achievements, and failures over the past several centuries using an interdisciplinary approach that combines theory and fact and evidence-based practices and interventions in public health, and argues that most of the health problems in Africa are not a result of scarce or lack of resources, but of the misconceived and misplaced priorities that have left the continent behind every other on the globe in terms of health, education, and equitable distribution of opportunities and access to (quality) health as agreed by the United Nations member states at Alma-Ata in 1978.

Governing Health Systems

Governing Health Systems
Author: Michael R. Reich
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2016-10-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351861719

Governing Health Systems: For Nations and Communities Around the World examines the complex relationships between governance and performance in community and national health systems. Each chapter provides an in-depth case study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, on health systems in many countries, including Uganda, Ghana, India, Zambia, Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Palestine, and South Korea. The chapters were written by former Takemi Fellows, who were mid-career research fellows at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and their colleagues. This case study approach yields important findings as well as contextual insights about the challenges and accomplishments in addressing governance issues in national and community health systems around the world. Health policymakers around the world are struggling to address the multiple challenges of governing health systems. These challenges also represent important themes for the research mission of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This book is based on the program’s thirtieth anniversary symposium held in October 2013 at Harvard. The studies presented in this book—deep examinations of illustrative examples of health system governance for communities and nations—contribute to our knowledge about global health and assist policymakers in dealing with the complex practical problems of health systems. In short, this book addresses central questions about governing health systems—and why governance matters.

Africa's Health Challenges

Africa's Health Challenges
Author: Andrew F. Cooper
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317184025

This volume addresses the ideational and policy-oriented challenges of Africa’s health governance due to voluntary and involuntary cross-border migration of people and diseases in a growing 'mobile Africa'. The collected set of specialized contributions in this volume examines how national and regional policy innovation can address the competing conception of sovereignty in dealing with Africa’s emerging healthcare problems in a fast-paced, interconnect world.

Moving Health Sovereignty in Africa

Moving Health Sovereignty in Africa
Author: Andrew F. Cooper
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 131709378X

Today’s era of intense globalization has unleashed dynamic movements of people, pathogens, and pests that overwhelm the static territorial jurisdictions on which the governance provided by sovereign states and their formal intergovernmental institutions is based. This world of movement calls for new ideas and institutions to govern people’s health, above all in Africa, where the movements and health challenges are the most acute. This book insightfully explores these challenges in ways that put the perspectives of Africans themselves at centre stage. It begins with the long central and still compelling African health challenge of combating the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. It then examines the global governance responses by the major multilateral organizations of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization and the newer informal flexible democratically oriented ones of the Group of Eight. It also addresses the compounding health challenge created by climate change to assess both its intensifying impact on Africa and how all international institutions have largely failed to link climate and health in their governance response. It concludes with several recommendations about the innovative ideas and institutions that offer a way to closing the great global governance gaps and thus improving Africans’ health and that of citizens beyond.

Governing Health Systems in Africa

Governing Health Systems in Africa
Author: Martyn Sama
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2008
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 2869781822

Drawing on various disciplinary perspectives, this book re-focuses the debate on what makes a good health system, with a view to clarifying the uses of social science research in thinking about health care issues in Africa. The explosion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the persistence of malaria as a major killer, and the resurgence of diseases like tuberculosis which were previously under control, have brought about changes in the health system, with implications for its governance, especially in view of the diminished capacity of the public health facilities to cope with a complex range of expanded needs. Government responsibilities and objectives in the health sector have been redefined, with private sector entities (both for profit and not-for profit) playing an increasingly visible role in health care provisions. The reasons for collaborative patterns vary, but chronic under-funding of publicly financed health services is often an important factor. Processes of decentralisation and health sector reforms have had mixed effects on health care system performance; while private health insurance markets and private clinics are pointers to a growing stratification of the health market, in line with the intensified income and social differentiation that has occurred over the last two decades.These developments call for health sector reforms.

Africa and Global Health Governance

Africa and Global Health Governance
Author: Amy S. Patterson
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2018-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1421424509

A timely inquiry into how domestic politics and global health governance interact in Africa. Global health campaigns, development aid programs, and disaster relief groups have been criticized for falling into colonialist patterns, running roughshod over the local structure and authority of the countries in which they work. Far from powerless, however, African states play complex roles in health policy design and implementation. In Africa and Global Health Governance, Amy S. Patterson focuses on AIDS, the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak, and noncommunicable diseases to demonstrate why and how African states accept, challenge, or remain ambivalent toward global health policies, structures, and norms. Employing in-depth analysis of media reports and global health data, Patterson also relies on interviews and focus-group discussions to give voice to the various agents operating within African health care systems, including donor representatives, state officials, NGOs, community-based groups, health activists, and patients. Showing the variety within broader patterns, this clearly written book demonstrates that Africa's role in global health governance is dynamic and not without agency. Patterson shows how, for example, African leaders engage with international groups, attempting to maintain their own leadership while securing the aid their people need. Her findings will benefit health and development practitioners, scholars, and students of global health governance and African politics.

Crossing the Global Quality Chasm

Crossing the Global Quality Chasm
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2019-01-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309477891

In 2015, building on the advances of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals that include an explicit commitment to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, enormous gaps remain between what is achievable in human health and where global health stands today, and progress has been both incomplete and unevenly distributed. In order to meet this goal, a deliberate and comprehensive effort is needed to improve the quality of health care services globally. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide focuses on one particular shortfall in health care affecting global populations: defects in the quality of care. This study reviews the available evidence on the quality of care worldwide and makes recommendations to improve health care quality globally while expanding access to preventive and therapeutic services, with a focus in low-resource areas. Crossing the Global Quality Chasm emphasizes the organization and delivery of safe and effective care at the patient/provider interface. This study explores issues of access to services and commodities, effectiveness, safety, efficiency, and equity. Focusing on front line service delivery that can directly impact health outcomes for individuals and populations, this book will be an essential guide for key stakeholders, governments, donors, health systems, and others involved in health care.

Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries

Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries
Author: Dean T. Jamison
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 1449
Release: 2006-04-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0821361805

Based on careful analysis of burden of disease and the costs ofinterventions, this second edition of 'Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition' highlights achievable priorities; measures progresstoward providing efficient, equitable care; promotes cost-effectiveinterventions to targeted populations; and encourages integrated effortsto optimize health. Nearly 500 experts - scientists, epidemiologists, health economists,academicians, and public health practitioners - from around the worldcontributed to the data sources and methodologies, and identifiedchallenges and priorities, resulting in this integrated, comprehensivereference volume on the state of health in developing countries.

World Malaria Report 2015

World Malaria Report 2015
Author: World Health Organization
Publisher: World Health Organization
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2016-01-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9241565152

The World Malaria Report 2015assesses global malaria disease trends and changes in the coverage and financing of malaria control programs between 2000 and 2015. It also summarizes progress towards international targets, and provides regional and country profiles that summarize trends in each WHO region and each country with malaria. The report is produced with the help of WHO regional and country offices, ministries of health in endemic countries, and a broad range of other partners. The data presented are assembled from the 96 countries and territories with ongoing malaria transmission, and a further five countries that have recently eliminated malaria. Most data are those reported for 2014 and 2015, although in some cases projections have been made into 2015, to assess progress towards targets for 2015.