Fair on the air : EQUINET working with media on fair financing of health services in East and Southern Africa

EQUINET worked with South Africa FM (SAFM) radio and reached an estimated audience of 796,000 across South Africa. The “African Labour Radio Project” (ALRP) show reached 21,000 across Africa and was re-broadcast on WBAI community radio in New York State. This one-pager provides information on some successful media projects by EQUINET. EQUINET brings together academic, government, non-state research centres, civil society and parliament institutions from east and southern Africa. It has built a forum for sharing knowledge and forging strategic alliances to influence policy and practice towards health equity and social justice. See www.equinetafrica.or

Reclaiming the resources for health : building universal people centred health systems in east and southern Africa

Meeting: Third EQUINET Regional Conference on Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa, September 23-25, 2009, Munyonyo, UGWhile the resources for health care exist within the region, many of these, such as health workers, flow out of Africa, while the remaining resources rarely reach those with greatest health needs. Inequality blocks access to economic opportunities for people who need them most. EQUINET, as a consortium of institutions from the region, is committed to taking action to advance health equity and to advocate and monitor equity and social justice. EQUINET works to build inter-governmental, parliamentary, civil society, health worker and academic forums in east and southern Africa. The report covers detailed conference presentations and plenary sessions

Reclaiming the Resources for Health: A Regional analysis of Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa

Published by EQUINET in association with Weaver Press, Zimbabwe, Fountain Publishers, Uganda and Jacana, South Africa

Mid-term project progress report : fair financing in East and Southern Africa; community voice through radio and participatory communications (report for the period July 2009 to 17 November 2009)

This progress report outlines communications work intended to complement the Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET), specifically by carrying out participatory and mass communications to disseminate existing research, knowledge and policy proposals. In a variety of radio broadcasts and programs, guests discussed why National Health Insurance was being proposed in South Africa, why additional health funding was needed, and the impact that national health insurance is likely to have on workers, both within and outside the health sector. Guests covered academic, union and government voices, creating space for public debate on health care financing

Participatory communications project for orphan and vulnerable children health in Monkey Bay, Malawi

This document provides the script from a pilot project to capture the voice of orphans and vulnerable children through radio programming in Monkey Bay, Malawi, with the ultimate goal of promoting and protecting their health. EQUINET worked with a local community-based organization (CBO) and former commercial sex workers to produce a community radio drama by and for vulnerable children who are sexually abused and or lured into sex work. EQUINET has built a forum for sharing knowledge and forging strategic alliances to influence policy and practice towards health equity and social justice. See http://www.equinetafrica.org

Broadcasting voices of vulnerable children : a community radio drama for and by orphans and vulnerable children in Monkey Bay, Malawi through Training and Research Support Centre and Community Minders for Peoples Development

This one-pager describes a pilot project to capture the voice of orphans and vulnerable children in Monkey Bay, Malawi, with the ultimate goal of promoting and protecting their health. EQUINET worked with a local community-based organization and former commercial sex workers to produce a community radio drama by and for vulnerable children who are sexually abused and or lured into sex work. EQUINET is a network bringing together academic, government, non-state research centres, civil society and parliament institutions from east and southern Africa. It has built a forum for sharing knowledge and forging strategic alliances to influence policy and practice towards health equity and social justice. See http://www.equinetafrica.org

Feasibility and projections for selected earmarked taxes as a source of health financing : skills workshop report, January 15-16 2013, Harare

The workshop seeks to address three topics: How to increase resources in order to move towards Universal Health Coverage? How to address equity within the framework of the UHC? How to finance health at a domestic level? Experiences in the earmarking of taxes raised a number of discussion points including options for data collection and analysis. Consultants presented data requirements for the designated taxes, their sources, as well as the limitations of some of the data. Alternatives to other data and data sources were discussed where primary data sources are hard to access

Financing Incidence Analysis of Health Financing in Zimbabwe : skills workshop report, February 18-22 2013, Harare

There are a number of problems in the health systems of three countries reviewed (South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania), which are mainly due to fragmentation in their insurance schemes. Inequity exists in the distribution of health care benefit in all 3 countries. The work on Financing Incidence Analysis (FIA) in Zimbabwe focuses on the assessment of socio-economic groups which bear the burden of different areas of health care financing, and as well the relative progressivity of financing mechanisms. Methods for data collection and analysis are discussed

How far is mixed methods research in the field of health policy and systems in Africa? A scoping review

International audienceBoth the academic and the policy community are calling for wider application of mixed methods research, suggesting that combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods is most suitable to assess and understand the complexities of health interventions. In spite of recent growth in mixed methods studies, limited efforts have been directed towards appraising and synthetizing to what extent and how mixed methods have been applied specifically to Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed at filling this gap in knowledge, by exploring the scope and quality of mixed methods research in the African context. We conducted a scoping review applying the framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley and modified by Levac et al. to identify and extract data from relevant studies published between 1950 and 2013. We limited our search to peer-reviewed HPSR publications in English, which combined at least one qualitative and one quantitative method and focused on Africa. Among the 105 studies that were retained for data extraction, over 60% were published after 2010. Nearly 50% of all studies addressed topics relevant to Health Systems, while Health Policy and Health Outcomes studies accounted respectively for 40% and 10% of all publications. The quality of the application of mixed methods varied greatly across studies, with a relatively small proportion of studies stating clearly defined research questions and differentiating quantitative and qualitative elements, including sample sizes and analytical approaches. The methodological weaknesses observed could be linked to the paucity of specific training opportunities available to people interested in applying mixed methods to HPSR in LMICs as well as to the limitations on word limit, scope and peer-review processes at the journals levels. Increasing training opportunities and enhancing journal flexibility may result in more and better quality mixed methods publications