A new report from the Health Evidence Network shows that empowering socially excluded populations is a viable strategy for improving health. While participatory processes make up the base of empowerment, strategies must also build community organizations and individuals capacity to participate in decision-making and advocacy.
Governance and participation in health
What is the evidence on effectiveness of empowerment to improve health?
WHO Regional Office for Europe -Health Evidence Network Report
Changing Paths: International Development and the New Politics of Inclusion
Edited by Peter P. Houtzager and Mick Moore
After two decades of marketizing, an array of national and international actors have become concerned with growing global inequality, the failure to reduce the numbers of very poor people in the world, and a perceived global backlash against international economic institutions. The essays in this volume explore what forms a new politics of inclusion can take in low- and middle-income countries. The contributors favor a polity-centered approach that focuses on the political capacities of social and state actors to negotiate large-scale collective solutions and that highlights various possible strategies to lift large numbers of people out of poverty and political subordination.
Governance and corruption in public health care systems
Equidad listserv : PAHO
"What factors affect health care delivery in the developing world? Anecdotal evidence of lives cut tragically short and the loss of productivity due to avoidable diseases is an area of salient concern in global health and international development. This working paper looks at factual evidence to describe the main challenges facing health care delivery in developing countries, including absenteeism, corruption, informal payments, and mismanagement. The author concludes that good governance is important in ensuring effective health care delivery, and that returns to investments in health are low where governance issues are not addressed." (Author's abstract)
The 'We All Have Aids Campaign'
The WE ALL HAVE AIDS Campaign is a show of solidarity among, and an acknowledgment of, many of the world's most accomplished, devoted and inspiring AIDS activists and scientists of the last 20 years. Barefoot and determined, each participant has left a meaningful mark in cement, but more importantly in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the destructive STIGMA associated with this devastating disease. Visit the website to find out more.
Radio Broadcasting for Health
DFID / Department for International Development (DFID), UK, 2004
This paper provides an overview of the role radio broadcasting can play in promoting better health for poor people. It has been conceptualised within the context of global efforts to reduce the burden of disease and ill health on poor people and advocates a people-centred and rights-based approach to health communications that emphasises: working with poor communities to gain an understanding of the full range of epidemiological, behavioural and risk taking factors that drive disease and ill health.
Health information generation and utilization for informed decision-making in equitable health service management
International Journal for Equity in Health 2005
The Kenya Partnership for Health (KPH) program began in 1999, and is currently one of the 12 field projects participating in the WHO's 'Towards Unity for Health initiative' implemented to develop partnership synergies in support of the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach. This paper illustrates how Program-linked Information Management by Integrative-participatory Research Approach (PIMIRA) as practised under KPH has been implemented within Trans-Nzoia District, Kenya to enhance community-based health initiatives. It shows how this model is strategically being scaled-up from one community to another in the management of political, social, cultural and economic determinants (barriers and enhancers) of health.
Popular Participation and primary health care in Uganda
Development Policy Review, Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 165, March 2005
"Advocates of participatory approaches to service delivery see devolution as key to empowering people to take charge of their own affairs. Participation is portrayed as guaranteeing the delivery of services that are in line with user preferences. It is assumed that people are keen to participate in public affairs, that they possess the capacity to do so, and that all they need is opportunities. Using evidence from ethnographic research in Uganda, this article questions these views. It shows that, to succeed in the long term, devolution and participation must take place in the context of a strong state, able to ensure consistent regulation, and a well-informed public backed up by a participatory political culture."
The role of community based research in unravelling HIV stigma
This Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development (Acord) report features two country case studies (Uganda and Burundi) which explored the role of community-based research in responding to HIV stigma and discrimination. The research found that issues of stigma and discrimination reached all spheres of life, including the home, family, the workplace, school, health settings and the larger community. It also identified a number of key factors that contribute to stigma and discrimination. These include ignorance and fear, cultural norms and values, some religious teachings, the lack of legal sanctions, lack of rights awareness, the design of government and other programmes, and inaccurate or irresponsible media coverage.
Cost and cost-effectiveness of community based DOTS in Tanzania
Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation 2005
Identifying new approaches to tuberculosis treatment that are effective and put less demand to meagre health resources is important. One such approach is community based direct observed treatment (DOT). The purpose of the study was to determine the cost and cost effectiveness of health facility and community based directly observed treatment of tuberculosis in an urban setting in Tanzania. The conclusion is that community based DOT presents an economically attractive option to complement health facility based DOT. This is particularly important in settings where TB clinics are working beyond capacity under limited resources.
The case of Kenya Partnership for Health program
International Journal for Equity in Health 2005
The Kenya Partnership for Health (KPH) program began in 1999, and is currently one of the 12 field projects participating in the WHO's 'Towards Unity for Health initiative' implemented to develop partnership synergies in support of the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach. This paper illustrates how Program-linked Information Management by Integrative-participatory Research Approach (PIMIRA) as practised under KPH has been implemented within Trans-Nzoia District, Kenya to enhance community-based health initiatives. It shows how this model is strategically being scaled-up from one community to another in the management of political, social, cultural and economic determinants (barriers and enhancers) of health.