[EQ] Health Systems 20/20 - Database

Health Systems 20/20 Health Systems Database.

 

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) 2008

 

Website: http://healthsystems2020.healthsystemsdatabase.org/Default.aspx

 

This easy-to-use web-based tool compiles and analyzes country data from multiple sources, provides charting options, and generates automated country fact sheets, helping users to assess the performance of the country’s health systems.

The Health Systems Database draws data from publicly available and internationally comparable databases. Sources are publications from the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). More recent data may be available from other sources including in-country sources. The user contribution section of this tool is designed to capture and share such information.

The tool offers a user-friendly interface with several types of graphing and mapping features as well as a flexible data download system that provide key health systems information for any selected country. Comparisons with peer countries in the region and income group are provided, which allows for some benchmarking of performance, especially when international standards for benchmarking are not available.

 

Country Health Systems Fact Sheets provide automated profiles, covering multiple health systems functions, for any low income or lower middle income country.

The Health Systems Database complements the recently released Health Systems Assessment Approach: A How-To Manual and, therefore, it closely mirrors the framework and quantitative analysis presented in the manual.

 

Key health systems indicators are organized around seven technical modules:
Core module,

Governance,
Health financing,
Health service delivery,
Human resources,
Pharmaceutical management, and
Health information systems.

 

Health Governance: Concepts, Experience, and Programming Options

PDF [32p.] at: http://www.healthsystems2020.org/files/1914_file_Governance_Policy_Brief_FIN_2.pdf

 

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under cooperative agreement GHS-A-00-06-00010-00. The information provided in this announcement is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.

Abt Associates Inc. leads a team of partners that includes: Aga Khan Foundation – BearingPoint - Bitran y Asociados - BRAC University - Broad Branch Associations - Forum One Communications - RTI International - Training Resources Group - Tulane University School of Public Health

 

 

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.  

[EQ] Challenges and Solutions in Health in Latin America

Challenges and Solutions in Health in Latin America

Paper for the Consulta de San José, sponsored by the Copenhagen Consensus Center and the Inter-American Development Bank

Philip Musgrove Deputy Editor, Health Affairs  September 2007

Health Challenges, Latin America

 

Available online [72p.] at: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=1186232

 

“……..The overall challenge can be expressed in one sentence: People do not always get the health care they need. Of course to provide all the care that would ever do something to improve health, with no concern for cost, could use far more of society’s resources than would make any sense. In fact, spending too much on health care might actually worsen health outcomes, as resources were withdrawn from education, food, environmental protection or other inputs to health. So the challenge or problem can be re-phrased as, Of the interventions that society decides it can afford, people do not always get all those that they need. “Intervention” is used in the sense of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edn (Jamison et al. 2006, hereafter DCP2, chapter 15), meaning actions that are not limited to individual medical care—they include public health measures.

 

“Care” in this sense includes even the provision of information about health risks. To the extent that some people get the benefit of needed interventions more readily than others, the challenge is one of disparities. One way to decompose the challenge and look for ways to address it ascribes the problem to four causes—People don’t realize that they need care (that is, demand is lacking); They lack access to care, for financial, physical and cultural reasons (health facilities are too costly to the patient, too distant, or impose cultural barriers to their use, such as language differences—these are supply deficiencies);

When care is accessible, it is provided inefficiently (priorities are set badly or left to chance, resources are wasted through imbalances among inputs or operation at uneconomical scale, and so on); and Even when care is accessible, its quality is often substandard (so it does not protect or improve health as much as it could, because providers don’t know what to do, or don’t act on what they know)….”

 

Table of Contents

I. Defining the Challenges

I.1 Ignorance of need means lack of demand

I.2 Impediments to obtaining wanted care

I.3 Inefficient provision

I.4 Substandard quality

II. Defining the solutions

II.1 Improving access to care

II.2 Raising quality of care

II.3 Improving efficiency

II.4 Increasing public knowledge

III. Costs of improving utilization of good quality care

III.1 Cost of expanding access in Colombia

III.2 Other costs of systemic improvement in Colombia

III.3 Other cost estimates

IV. Benefits from the proposed solutions

IV.1 Prior estimates of benefits, and their limitations

IV.2 Financial protection

IV.3 Improved health access and outcomes

V. Conclusions

 

 

Challenges and Solutions in Health in Latin America. An Alternative View

Solution Papers Consulta de San José

Savedoff, William D.

This note presents an "Alternative View" to "Challenges and Solutions in Health in Latin America," prepared by Philip Musgrove for the Consulta de San José 2007 ((pdf 84kb)

 

Available online [14p.] at:

http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=1186218

 

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.  

[EQ] Children's Perspectives on Economic Adversity: A Review of the Literature

Children’s Perspectives on Economic Adversity: A Review of the Literature

 

Gerry Redmond

DISCUSSION PAPERS IDP Number 2008-01 March 2008

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre IRC, Florence Italy

 

Available online PDF file [23p.]  at: http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/idp_2008_01.pdf

 

“…..This paper reviews some of the recent qualitative literature on children’s perspectives on economic disadvantage.  The idea of asking people who experience disadvantage about their own situations is still a relatively new one in the social sciences, and the idea of asking children about their own perceptions of economic and social disadvantage is even more recent.

Nine analyses, all published since 1998, and all of them involving in-depth interviews or group work with children aged between 5 and 17, are examined in detail.  Most  of  these  studies  develop frameworks based on the ‘new sociology  of  childhood’, which emphasises the social  construction of childhood  and  children’s  agency in the context of child-adult relations.

The nine studies cover a number of issues related to economic disadvantage, including  exclusion from activities and peer groups at school and in the community;  perceptions of ‘poor’ and ‘affluent’ children; participation in organised activities outside of  school  hours; methods  of coping with financial  hardship;  support  for  parents  in  coping  and in seeking and keeping employment, and aspirations for future careers and lives.

 

The analysis is organised under two themes - social exclusion and agency.
Both are important from a child’s perspective. The research examined here shows  that  what  concerns  children  is not lack of resources per se, but exclusion  from  activities that other children appear to take for granted, and embarrassment and shame at not being able to participate on equal terms with other children. The research also shows the extent to which children’s agency  matters, first for themselves, to make sense of their situation and to  interpret  it  positively  or  otherwise; second, for their parents and families,  to  help  them  cope  with financial and other pressures through engaging  in  domestic  work and caring, not making demands on parents, and protecting  them  from further pressure where they are able; and third, for policy:  initiatives  to  reduce  children’s exclusion must take account of children’s own perspectives on their situation.

 

On the basis of the nine papers analysed, the review argues that economic disadvantage can lead to exclusion in a number of critical areas, including schooling,  access to out of school activities, and interaction with peers. But  the  review  also  finds  that children use their agency creatively to reduce  the  impact  of  economic  adversity  on  them  and their families.

However, they can also turn it inwards, leading to them lowering their own aspirations,  excluding  themselves from a range of activities, or engaging in  activities that attract social disapproval. The review concludes with a discussion of the ethical and practical challenges associated with conducting research with children, and with a summary of issues that still remain under-researched.

 

This paper contributes to IRC's ongoing exploration of ways to understand and  study the different dimensions of child wellbeing and the realization of children's rights for policy development purposes…..” From: Eva Jespersen

 

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.