Health Equity: 05/20/10

Thursday, May 20, 2010

[EQ] Systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs

Systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs

Christopher Potter1 and Richard Brough2

1 Department of Epidemiology, Statistics and Community Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK and
2 EC Health and Family Welfare Programme Office, New Delhi, India

doi: 10.1093/heapol/czh038 Health Policy and Planning 19(5),

HEALTH POLICY AND PLANNING; 19(5): 336–345 Oxford University Press

http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/19/5/336

“…….‘Capacity building’ is the objective of many development programmes and a component of most others. However, satisfactory definitions continue to elude us, and it is widely suspected of being too broad a concept to be useful. Too often it becomes merely a euphemism referring to little more than training.

This paper argues that it is more important to address systemic capacity building, identifying a pyramid of nine separate but interdependent components.
These form a four-tier hierarchy of capacity building needs:
(1) structures, systems and roles,
(2) staff and facilities,
(3) skills, and
(4) tools.

Emphasizing systemic capacity building would improve diagnosis of sectoral shortcomings in specific locations, improve project/programme design and monitoring, and lead to more effective use of resources. Based on extensive action research in 25 States, experience from India is presented to illustrate how the concept of the capacity building pyramid has been put to practical use….”

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[EQ] Which New Approaches to Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases Show Promise?

Which New Approaches to Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases Show Promise?

Jerry M. Spiegel 1,2,3, Shafik Dharamsi 2,3,4, Kishor M. Wasan 5, Annalee Yassi 1,6, Burton Singer7, Peter J. Hotez 8, Christy Hanson 9, Donald A. P. Bundy10

1 School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 2 Centre for International Health, College of Health Disciplines, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 3 Liu Institute for Global Issues, College for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 4 Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 5 Division of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 6 Global Health Research Program, College for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 7 Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, 8 George Washington University, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine, and Sabin Vaccine Institute, Washington, D.C., United States of America, 9 United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington, D.C., United States of America, 10 The World Bank, Washington, D.C., United States of America

PLoS Medicine - May 2010 - Volume 7 - Issue 5 - e1000255

Available online at: http://bit.ly/bvfU5K

“…..This PLoS Medicine Debate examines the different approaches that can be taken to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Some commentators, like Jerry Spiegel and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, feel there has been too much focus on the biomedical mechanisms and drug development for NTDs, at the expense of attention to the social determinants of disease. Burton Singer argues that this represents another example of the inappropriate “overmedicalization” of contemporary tropical disease control. Peter Hotez and colleagues, in contrast, argue that the best return on investment will continue to be mass drug administration for NTDs…..”





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