The sharing by countries of influenza virus samples is important for vaccine development, and for understanding how viruses are mutating. Developing countries have thus freely provided samples to the World Health Organisation (WHO). But when private pharmaceutical companies use the samples to develop and patent vaccines which the same developing countries cannot afford, this is unjust and exposes thousands of people in developing countries to preventable deaths. This policy brief outlines the opportunities that African countries have to negotiate for equitable benefit sharing in the use of viral resources, through international treaties. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources provide for fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of biological resources. The brief provides information on their enabling clauses and outlines the options that African countries may consider in their negotiations for an equitable system.
Latest Equinet Updates
In July through various institutions EQUINET has participated in forums that are taking forward processes supporting equity in health in the region. In July 18-20, Open Society Foundation AMHI held a strategic convening on community monitoring for accountability in health in Johannesburg South Africa, bringing together experienced practitioners of community monitoring to facilitate networking, collaboration, and experience sharing for strengthening the field. In July 20 - 22 2011, the 3rd Meeting of the ECSA Health Community Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Expert Core Group met in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to review progress in implementing ministers resolutions, including report on progress on the Equity Watch work. In July 24-26, EQUINET contributed to discussions on framing IDRC work on strengthening equity through applied research capacity building in eHealth, with a focus on how the use of ICT (information technology) can influence health governance and health systems strengthening towards health equity outcomes. While these activities were hosted by different institutions and connected with different processes in EQUINET, they signalled a common concern with equity as outcome and a common preoccupation with the generation, control and exchange of information and evidence in addressing the imbalances in power and resources that underlie inequalities in health.
By involving citizens and health workers in producing evidence and learning, participatory action research has potential to organise community evidence, stimulate action, and challenge the marginalisation that undermines achievement of universal health coverage. In this paper, the authors summarise and analyse results of two sessions on this research model convened by the authors at the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Montreux Switzerland, 16–19 November 2010. In so doing, it reviews case studies and experiences discussed, particularly their contribution to universal health coverage in different settings. The authors reflects on challenges faced by participatory action research, and outline recommendations from the two sessions, including the creation of a learning network for participatory action research.
The training held in Kiboga district Uganda was aimed at building capacities of Health workers and communities jointly to work together to strengthen their interactions through health literacy and participatory approaches. It is anticipated that the training will go a long way in strengthening communication between health workers (employed in the health system in the community or the primary care level services) and community members at primary care level towards specific, measurable improvements of the health system for both with local coordination by Health Literacy facilitators. Specifically the training aimed to: Introduce the health literacy programme and Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) approaches to community members and Health Workers in Kybwanzi District (Former Kiboga District); Provide core skills and information to HEPS Uganda health literacy facilitators to implement joint action to improve and strengthen Community-Health worker interactions; Reflect on the current facilitators and blocks to communication between health workers and communities, and how to improve this; Provide training materials and orient HEPS Uganda facilitators to jointly identify and prioritize health needs and ill health problems, identify actions on shared priorities, identify gaps or barriers to uptake of primary health care (PHC) responses to prioritized problems, and set a shared (HW-Community) action plan and orient HEPS Facilitators in Kybwanzi District on administering the baseline and the programme post survey instruments.
EQUINET is commissioning and calling for applicants to prepare, through desk review of existing data and literature on the east and southern African region, a situation report on gender related dimensions of equity in health, and the policy measures and options for addressing gender inequalities. Specifically the report will provide evidence, data and analysis on priority dimensions of gender equity in health in east and southern Africa within the context of the overall framework of progress markers for equity in health defined by EQUINET. The gender equity analysis will be expected to broadly provide
1. Evidence on and an analysis of trends over the past decade (2001-2011) (drawing on available secondary data) in terms of gender-related inequalities in health (including in access to social determinants of health and health systems) in East and southern Africa, and identify gaps in addressing these inequalities.
2. An overview of key priorities, policy options and specific measures for improving gender equity in health, drawing on evidence from policy analysis and evaluation, analysis of trends related to gender inequalities and case studies
3. A discussion of the implications of (1) and (2) above for the organisation and financing of health systems and the allocation of resources to and within health systems.
Applications should be emailed by 5:00pm June 30 2011 to admin@equinetafrica.org with GENDER EQUITY in the subject line and must include information as in the longer version on the website.
This report presents different experiences of using PAR in health systems from India, East and Southern Africa, Guatemala and Canada. These experiences are used to explore and discuss the learning on methods, on the knowledge generated and the implications for health systems, and what this means for the profile and practice of PAR. The report outlines the presentations and discussions from two sessions on participatory action research convened by the authors at the first Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Montreux Switzerland, November 16-19 2010.
The training held in Lusaka district Zambia was aimed at building capacities of Health workers and communities jointly to work together to strengthen their interactions through health literacy and participatory approaches. It is anticipated that the training will go a long way in strengthening communication between health workers (employed in the health system in the community or the primary care level services) and community members at primary care level towards specific, measurable improvements of the health system for both with local coordination by Health Literacy facilitators. Specifically the training aimed to: •Introduce the health literacy programme and Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) approaches to community members and Health Workers in Lusaka District •Provide core skills and information to health literacy facilitators to implement joint action to improve and strengthen Community-Health worker interactions •Reflect on the current facilitators and blocks to communication between health workers and communities, and how to improve this. •Provide training materials and orient facilitators to jointly identify and prioritize health needs and ill health problems, identify actions on shared priorities, identify gaps or barriers to uptake of primary health care (PHC) responses to prioritized problems, and set a shared (HW-Community) action plan. •Orient Facilitators in Lusaka District on administering the baseline and the programme post survey instruments.
On 25-26 March 2011, Section27 convened a meeting of 70 activists and experts from 16 countries, including from EQUINET, mostly from Southern Africa but also from India, Brazil, the United States and Europe. The meeting’s aim was to build a common vision, and if possible programme, for realising the right to health and to discuss how to mobilise and support new campaigns for health at local, national, regional and global levels. A further objective of the consultation was to explore and debate whether, in future, a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) could be an effective international legal instrument for coordination of currently fragmented activities, sustainable and sufficient resource mobilisation and standard-setting to realise the right to health. The conference reinforced the view that there is a need to mobilise people from the grass-roots level to fight for their own rights to health by educating people on and popularising the right to health, and linking community and national movements into a truly global movement of for the right to health. Finally, it confirmed the importance of exploring the idea of a future FCGH as one component of this struggle.
Commissioned by the World Health Organization (Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights - Social Determinants of Health) and the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET) through REACH Trust and Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) – 2010. “….Barriers that prevent access to antiretroviral treatment services (ART) are often socially determined. Using the Tanahashi model of health service coverage and by identifying areas of health systems and programs where action needs to be strengthened to improve equity, this publication proposes a set of potential indicators to monitor equity in access to ART. Monitoring equity in access helps decision-makers to reach people frequently excluded from treatment and facilitates efforts to overcome barriers by addressing their social determinants, within and beyond the health system. This jointly prepared publication follows up previous WHO work that explores the barriers and social determinants that impact on specific health conditions presented in the book "Equity, social determinants and public health programmes" (2010). It also builds on over 8 years of policy dialogue and research in east and southern Africa in EQUINET on equity in health, with a particular focus on HIV and AIDS. The rationale, concepts and indicators included in this publication can be further refined and adapted in the future to measure equity in access to health services or to other public health programs (e.g. TB, non-communicable diseases).
A report released by HEPS Uganda and partner organisations in the Uganda Health Equity Network (UHEN) entitled ‘Right to Health: A Civil Society Perspective on the 12th Annual Report of the Uganda Human Rights Commission’, has criticised Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) for taking a narrow approach in reporting on the status of the Right to Health in Uganda. Noting that the report is a key tool and an opportunity to inform Parliament on the state of the Right to Health in Uganda, the civil society organisations are concerned that the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s silence on the key determinants of health and the country’s emerging public health challenges suggests that it is not doing enough to fulfil its mandate of promoting and monitoring human rights in the country. The HEPS/UHEN report, analysing the Commission’s most recent report to Parliament, points out that UHRC’s report inexplicably does not report the impact on health of trade, the proposed health insurance scheme, climate change, urbanisation, environmental degradation and similar socioeconomic determinants of health.