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Issue 42 : Strengthening health systems
Many developing countries have health systems that are ailing – and well-intentioned development aid is contributing to the problem. Between 2000 and 2010, annual development assistance for health surged from US$10.5 billion to US$27 billion. Most of this was channelled through donor-driven programmes targeted at specific diseases, most prominently HIV/AIDS. Such ‘vertical’ programming has undermined the development of strong national health systems and drawn resources away from countries’ other health priorities. District governments have a key role in coordinating the activities of all local health players, including those running vertical programmes.
Featured Article
Exploring a diagonal approach
Integrating
antiretroviral treatment into primary health care
Programmes aimed at fighting single diseases have helped many, but they have also weakened public health systems. This does not have to be the case. Individual disease programmes can help to develop the capacity of primary health care systems.
More- Search Terms:
- casestudies
- africa
All Articles
Guest column: The forgotten link
28 May 2011
Abdul Ghaffar, Executive director of the World Health Organization Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Geneva
Why health systems are failing
Both 1978 and 2000 were watershed years for world health. The conference of health leaders in Alma Ata in 1978 and the United Nations Assembly in 2000, where the Millennium Declaration was adopted, stand out as the two international gatherings that threw global health into the spotlight and put it on the development agenda.
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Abdul Ghaffar
(Executive director, World Health Organization Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Geneva)
Exploring a diagonal approach
28 May 2011
Integrating
antiretroviral treatment into primary health care
Programmes aimed at fighting single diseases have helped many, but they have also weakened public health systems. This does not have to be the case. Individual disease programmes can help to develop the capacity of primary health care systems.
More- Search Terms:
- casestudies
- africa
Thomas Gass
(Anthropologist and public health expert)
Interview: Giving substance to pretty words
28 May 2011
NGO's
role in bolstering public health systems
Promoting ‘country ownership’ in aid-dependent countries is central to the debate on aid effectiveness – but global health initiatives have often encouraged the opposite. In 2008 a code of conduct was drafted to address this trend. Capacity.org talked with Wendy Johnson, director of new initiatives with Health Alliance International (HAI), who was one of the architects of the code of conduct.
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Wendy Johnson
(Director of new initiatives, Health Alliance International, Seattle, Washington)
Case study: Strengthening district health systems in Karamoja
29 May 2011
Inside the district health system
In Karamoja in northern Uganda, many children do not live to see their fifth birthday. In an initiative to improve child survival, Doctors with Africa, Cuamm has formed a partnership with UNICEF to strengthen Karamoja’s district health systems.
More- Search Terms:
- casestudies
- africa
- community empowerment
Peter Lochoro
(Country representative, Doctors with Africa Cuamm, Uganda)
Rogers Ayiko
(Monitoring and evaluation officer, Doctors with Africa Cuamm, Uganda)
Giovanni Dall’oglio
(Regional coordinator Karamoja programme, Doctors with Africa Cuamm, Uganda)
The road to Busan
28 May 2011
Capacity development and aid effectiveness debates
The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness will take place in Busan, South Korea later this year. How will the question of capacity development be addressed in the forthcoming debates?
More- Search Terms:
- dialogue
- knowledge-sharing
- policy
James Hradsky
(OECD/DAC senior coordinator for capacity development)
Case study: Applying the Paris Declaration to Zambia's health sector
28 May 2011
Earmarked and vertical funds are often at odds with commitments to strengthen health systems. Can such funding be tweaked to prevent a negative impact on health systems?
More- Search Terms:
- policy
- casestudies
- africa
Carolien Aantjes
(Consultant HIV/AIDS programming and mainstreaming, ETC Crystal, the Netherlands)
Fikansa Chanda
(Sub-regional director for Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Regional Psycho-Social Support Initiative (EPSSI), Zambia)
Case study: Diabetes, Cambodia's silent killer
28 May 2011
Accessible care for
diabetes in Cambodia
In Cambodia, diabetes is a devastating disease. Expensive clinical care is accessible only to the urban rich, while the poor remain untreated and die. The Cambodian organisation, MoPoTsyo, has an innovative solution that has already saved many lives.
More- Search Terms:
- casestudies
- asia
- ngos
- training
Maurits van Pelt
(Director, MoPoTsyo, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Chean Men
(Board member, MoPoTsyo and Researcher, Center for Advanced Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Editorial: Strengthening health systems
28 May 2011
Many developing countries have health systems that are ailing – and well-intentioned development aid is contributing to the problem. Between 2000 and 2010, annual development assistance for health surged from US$10.5 billion to US$27 billion. Most of this was channelled through donor-driven programmes targeted at specific diseases, most prominently HIV/AIDS. Such ‘vertical’ programming has undermined the development of strong national health systems and drawn resources away from countries’ other health priorities.
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