Useful Resources

The Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) tool has four key objectives: 1. Help identify unintended potential health equity impacts of decision-making (positive and negative) on specific population groups. 2. Support equity-based improvements in policy, planning, programme or service design. 3. Embed equity in an organisation’s decision-making processes. 4. Build capacity and raise awareness about health equity throughout the organisation. The HEIA tool includes a template and a workbook that provides users with step by step instructions on how to conduct an HEIA. The workbook walks users through five steps: scoping, potential impacts, mitigation, monitoring and dissemination. The results are recorded in the HEIA template. The tool may be used by organisations both inside and outside the health care system whose work can have an impact on health outcomes.

A billion people around the world never see a health worker in their lives. This short, animated video asks ‘Where are the health workers?’ It looks at the problem of health worker migration from developing countries to developed countries, resulting in severe staff shortages in the donor countries. It proposes retention strategies in the form of living wages, decent working conditions, supportive management and adequate training for health workers. These health workers are also seen as important drivers of change through educating the public about health issues. They can serve as role models in their communities and save many lives. The video promotes the vision of ‘A health worker for everyone, everywhere’. With powerful visual representations and simple English, it can be used for health worker advocacy work in African settings.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a resource package of practical tools specifically aimed at improving patient safety in hospitals in developing countries. African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS) is a WHO Patient Safety Programme building sustainable patient safety partnerships between hospitals in countries of the WHO African Region and hospitals in other regions. African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS) is a WHO Patient Safety Programme building sustainable patient safety partnerships between hospitals in countries of the WHO African Region and hospitals in other regions. APPS is concerned with advocating for patient safety as a precondition of health care in the African Region and catalysing a range of actions that will strengthen health systems, assist in building local capacity and help reduce medical error and patient harm. The programme acts as a channel for patient safety improvements that can spread across countries, uniting patient safety efforts.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) monitors communicable diseases in South Africa. It is a resource of knowledge and expertise in regionally relevant communicable diseases to the South African Government, to SADC countries and the African continent. The NICD assists in the planning of policies and programmes and supports appropriate responses to communicable disease problems and issues. Every month, NICD publishes its Communiqué for the purpose of providing up-to-date information on communicable diseases in South Africa.