Health Equity: 06/08/11

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

[EQ] Declining Inequality in Latin America: Some Economics, Some Politics

Declining Inequality in Latin America:
Some Economics, Some Politics

Nancy Birdsall is president of the Center for Global Development
Nora Lustig is the Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics at Tulane University and non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Inter-American Dialogue
Darryl McLeod is associate professor in the economics department at Fordham University

CGD Working Paper 251. Washington, D.C. Center for Global Development June 2011

Available online PDF [31p.] at: http://bit.ly/iw8RTY

“….Latin America is known to have income inequality among the highest in the world. That inequality has been invoked to explain low growth, poor education, macroeconomic volatility, and political instability. But new research shows that inequality in the region is falling.

In this paper we summarize recent findings on inequality, present and discuss an assessment of how the type of political regime matters and why, and investigate the relationship between changes in inequality and changes in the size of the middle class in the region.

We conclude with some questions about whether and how changes in income distribution and in middle-class economic power will affect the politics of distribution in the future….”

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[EQ] Social Franchising Evaluations - A scoping review

Social Franchising Evaluations - A scoping review

Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos, Rukhsana Gazi, S. Shahed Hossain, Mashida Rashid
London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London

June 2011

Available online PDF [58p.] at: http://bit.ly/kCYkE6

“………Social franchising developed as a possible means of improving the provision of non-state sector health services in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the scope and nature of existing research literature on social franchising interventions, including reach, implementation, sustainability and goals, in health service delivery.

Methods

A rigorous search strategy was run in nine major databases, including Medline, Embase and CINAHL. Grey literature was also searched. All types of evaluative study designs were eligible for inclusion. Existing data abstraction and analysis tools were used. The AMSTAR measurement tool was applied to assess the quality of included systematic reviews. Framework analysis was chosen for synthesising qualitative and quantitative research.

Results

Twelve studies were included in this review: three systematic reviews and nine primary studies. Social franchising has been evaluated in Asia and Africa, particularly from low income countries. Most studies focused on reproductive health and family planning. We found a paucity of rigorous study designs, so the evidence supporting social franchising is weak. Across settings, the government continues to have the highest volume of clients for family planning and other services; however, franchises do better than non-franchised private providers in terms of client volume. The clients of social franchises are satisfied with the quality of care and consistently report an intent to return.

Conclusions

Given that social franchising remains an area of great interest and investment, we recommend evaluations of implementation processes and sustainability, and more rigorous evaluations of the effects of different models….”

Contents

Abstract

Executive summary

Synthesis results

Conclusions and recommendations

1. Background

2. Methods used in the review

3. Search results

4. Synthesis of findings

5. Conclusions
6. References

Appendices

Appendix 1.1: Authorship

Appendix 2.1: Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Appendix 2.2: Sources searched electronically and by hand

Appendix 2.3.1: Search strategies for electronic databases

Appendix 2.3.2: Quality assessment checklist for primary studies

Appendix 3.1: Table of excluded studies

Appendix 3.2: Quality assessment of primary studies

The shading highlights the outliers in each column.

Appendix 4.1: Details of studies included in the review: description of interventions

Appendix 4.2: Details of studies included in the review: evaluation of interventions

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* * *
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/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA