The meeting was held to discuss issues relating to the effective management of the mobility of health care workers and to shift the agenda from awareness to action. Preliminary findings from three national studies focusing on migration trends of health professionals were presented, providing an evidence base for discussion and a direction for further recommendations. As the realities of migration trends amongst skilled health professionals continue to impact the standards and accessibility of health services on the continent, Kenya has taken a lead in studying these developments at a national and regional level. It was strongly recommended that the National Steering Committee take up immediate action on: briefing of all stakeholders on progress made in implementation of the programme as to encourage wider government ownership; broaden the NSC membership to include key government agencies not presently included, mainly the Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Finance; take immediate steps for establishment of an integrated data management system for managing human resources for health, including a minimum data set on health worker mobility; take immediate steps to active implementation of existing policies and laws relevant to managing internal and external migration of human resources for health; and review and strengthen policies and incentives for recruitment and retention of health workers.
Latest Equinet Updates
The EQUINET book 'Reclaiming the Resources for Health: A regional analysis of equity in health in East and Southern Africa' published in late 2007 is now available as an electronic download on this site at http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/EQUINET%20Reclaiming%20the%20Resources%20for%20Health%20in%20ESA.pdf The book is a resource for researchers, policy makers and health activists and highlights challenges and opportunities for improving health equity in east and southern Africa,
* for poor people to claim a fairer share of national resources for their health;
* for a more just return for ESA countries from the global economy to increase the resources for health; and
* for a larger share of global and national resources to be invested in redistributive health systems.
EQUINET in co-operation with ECSA-HC have, with government and researchers in five countries, carried out review and field studies on the implementation of incentives for health worker retention and of their impact on the adequacy and distribution of health workers. A regional meeting will be held in February 2009 to review this work and other work on health worker migration and distribution in EQUINET in Windhoek Namibia, locally hosted by the University of Namibia. If you are interested in this meeting please contact us at admin@equinetafrica.org, using "HCW Retention meeting" in the subject line.
This meeting provided an opportunity for discussion of evidence in the draft Zimbabwe equity watch from the perspective of people from community and primary health care levels of the health system. Evidence in the Zimbabwe equity analysis provided input to civil society plans within the CWGH and to the resolutions from the CWGH meeting. The discussion on the Zimbabwe equity analysis was a build up to the launch of the book ‘Reclaiming resources for health: A regional analysis for equity in Health in East and Southern Africa’. The event was attended by more than hundred people from Parliament (MPs), Ministry of Health, Ministry of education, academics, representatives from the Health Service Board, private sector, civil society, health worker unions, labour movement, and delegates from the region (Uganda, Malawi, South Africa).
This report provides an overview of the status of health care financing in seven East and Southern African (ESA) countries (Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe). It draws on country case-studies and a collaborative cross-country analysis undertaken at an EQUINET workshop. Health care financing issues are considered through an equity lens, with a focus on revenue collection, pooling of funds and purchasing. There remains a heavy dependency on donor funding in several countries. While debt relief initiatives are translating into increased government funding for health care in some countries, in other countries, the health sector has not benefited much from reduced debt servicing. Due to high levels of out-of-pocket payments in many ESA countries and a heavy emphasis in the tax system on VAT, individual households carry a heavy burden. Health insurance is growing in popularity, particularly community-based health insurance which has placed the financing burden on relatively poor rural communities and those living in informal urban areas. All the countries under review have poor fund pooling with little in the way of risk equalisation mechanisms, which severely limits the potential for income and risk cross-subsidies. To achieve equitable health care financing it is necessary to: eliminate, or at least reduce out-of-pocket payments; increase the funding of health services from tax revenue; and introduce mechanisms to integrate all forms of pre-payment (i.e. tax funding and health insurance).
All abstracts for the EQUINET conference must be submitted on or before January 30 2009. The Third EQUINET Regional Conference on Equity in Health in east and southern Africa will be held at Speke Conference Centre, Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda September 23rd -25th 2009. The conference theme is 'Reclaiming the Resources for Health: Building Universal People Centred Health Systems in East and Southern Africa'.
The themes are listed in the EQUINEt website. Sessions will be 2-3 hours in length and interactive in nature. Presenters may be asked to present verbally, using Power-oint, or using a visual presentation of a paper using charts, photos, drawings and/or text mounted on a poster board. The sessions will include brief summary presentations of the accepted abstracts on the theme and aim to give adequate time for full facilitated discussions of work and the issues raised. The Abstract submission form and registration form can be downloaded at the conference website.
Abstracts are a maximum of 400 words and typed at MS Word documents in Arial 11pt font. The title should be no more than 50 characters including punctuation, but long enough to identify the nature of the study. Ensure the abstract provides information on the findings. Accepted abstracts will appear in print in a bound abstract book distributed at the conference, and may also be posted on the conference web site.
Temos o conhecimento, habilidade, e experiência de superar desigualidades persistentes na saúde na Africa Oriental e Austral. Esta análise providencia uma mensagem inspiradora e emposada, explorando vários aspectos da saúde e sistemas da saúde e fornecendo muitos exemplos de boa prática na região. A evidência dentro desta análise aponta para três formas em quais reclamando os recursos para a saúde pode melhorar a equidade da saúde. Estas são: para as pessoas pobres reclamar uma divisão mais justa dos recursos nacionais a fim de melhorar a sua saúde; para um regresso mais justo para Africa Oriental e Austral da economia global a fim de aumentar os recursos para a saúde; e para uma divisão mais ampla dos recursos nacionais e globais para serem investidos nos sistemas redistribuitivos da saúde a fim de superar os efeitos empobrecidos da má-saúde. Embora a imagem de saúde da Africa Oriental e Austral está actualmente triste, com taxas altas de mortalidade, baixa esperança da vida e cargas altas de subalimentação, HIV e SIDA, tuberculose (TB) e malaria, a mensagem que emerge deste livro é uma de esperança e reconhecimento das nossas forças e possibilidades para acções.
This report presents the proceedings and debates at a meeting, held in Munyonyo Uganda September 16-18 2008, of parliamentary committees responsible for health from twelve countries in East and Southern Africa, with technical, government and civil society and regional partners. The meeting reviewed the health equity situation in the region in relation to regional goals (e.g. Maputo Plan of Action, Abuja Declaration) as well as international frameworks (e.g. ICPD PoA, and the MDGs). Various areas of parliamentary work were reviewed in relationto health equity and primary health care: from a budget and policy oversight lens, the meeting reviewed AIDS and sexual and reproductive health policies and commodity security, and the laws and budgets for this. The meeting explored options for fair and adequate health care financing and for promoting equitable resource allocation, particularly in relation to budget processes. The legal rolesof parliament were discussed in relation to the application of international and regional treaties and conventions on the right to health; and the measures to promote health in patenting laws and the EPA negotiations and more generally in trade agreements. the meeting also explored developments in primary health care and social empowerment in health. The report presents the resolutions of the meeting and and the proposals made to strengthen SEAPACOH regional networking and organisation.
Os diferentes distritos, regiões e províncias num país têm diferentes necessidades de saúde e recursos disponíveis dos cuidados da saúde. Os fundos do governo justamentamente distribuídos para a saúde assim chamam para uma formula que calcula a divisão dos recursos totais para seremalocados para áreas baseadas sobre indicadores da necessidade relativa para cuidados da saúde naquela área. Muitos países na região usam tais formulários. Eles usam diferentes indicadores da necessidade de saúde, incluindo a capacidade populacional e a sua composição, os níveis da pobreza, doenças específicas e mortalidade. Revelando experiência em certos países selecionadodentro da região, esta breve política sugere que os países podem fortalecer uma alocação equitativa dos recursos para a saúde através de aumentar a cota global do financiamento do governo alocada ao sector da saúde, trazendo ajuda externa e o financiamento do governo num só conjunto de fundose aloca-los atraves dum mecanismo simples. Alocação de recursos equitativos chama para os governos estabelecer alvos anuais para alocação equitativa destes fundos públicos, e colecionainformação para monitorar e reportar sobre progresso em alcançar estes alvos, incluindo parliamentos e sociedade civil. Alocação de recursos é um processo politizado e requer umcuidadosa, incluindo, planificar, oraganizar e providencia de incentivos para a re-distribuição do pessoal de cuidados da saúde para áreas onde a necessidade da saúde é alta.
No ano 2001, em Abuja na Nigeria, os Chefes dos estados membros da União Africana comprometeram para alocar ao menos 15% de orçamentos dos governos para seus sectores da saúde. Ao mesmo tempo chamaram os países doadores para complementar seus esforços a fim de mobilizar domesticamente os recursos através de cumprirem o seu compromisso de dedicar 0.7% do seu PBN como AOD para os países em via de desenvolvimento e cancelar a dívida externa da Afica em favor Do aumento de investimento no sector social. O alvo de Abuja, assim, consiste de três componentes; os países Africanos deveriam: mobilizar os recursos domésticos para a saúde (15% agora); estar não sobre-carregado pela prestação de contas do débito (Cancelamento de Débito agora); e ser apoiada pela AOD (0.7% PBN agora).