Considering health equity when moving from evidence-based guideline recommendations to implementation: a case study from...
...Published in Health policy and planning
The influence of gender and household headship on voluntary health insurance: the case of North-West Cameroon.
Published in Health policy and planning
Within the existing health financing literature, males are typically categorized as the household's decision-makers. While this view accurately reflects many local sociocultural realities, approximately a quarter of sub-Saharan African households are now headed by females. In light of various efforts to expand health insurance coverage in the regio...
A cluster-randomized evaluation of an intervention to increase skilled birth attendant utilization in mid- and far-weste...
Published in Health policy and planning
Skilled birth attendant (SBA) utilization is low in remote and rural areas of Nepal. We designed and implemented an evaluation to assess the effectiveness of a five-component intervention that addressed previously identified barriers to SBA services in mid- and far-western Nepal. We randomly and equally allocated 36 village development committees w...
Can school-based distribution be used to maintain coverage of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets: evidence from a...
Published in Health policy and planning
Many sub-Saharan African countries have achieved substantial gains in insecticide treated bednet coverage since 2005. The Tanzania National Malaria Control Programme identified school-based net distribution as one potential 'keep-up' strategy for the purpose of maintaining long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) coverage after a nationwide mass campai...
Understanding the linkages between social safety nets and childhood violence: a review of the evidence from low- and mid...
Published in Health policy and planning
As many as one billion children experience violence every year, and household- and community-level poverty are among the risk factors for child protection violations. Social safety nets (SSNs) are a main policy tool to address poverty and vulnerability, and there is substantial evidence demonstrating positive effects on children's health and human ...
Did contracting effect the use of primary health care units in Pakistan?
Published in Health policy and planning
For many years, Pakistan has had a wide network of Basic Health Units spread across the country, but their utilization by the population in rural and peri-urban areas has remained low. As of 2004, in an attempt to improve the utilization and performance of these public primary healthcare facilities, the government has gradually started contracting-...
Setting healthcare priorities: a description and evaluation of the budgeting and planning process in county hospitals in...
Published in Health policy and planning
This paper describes and evaluates the budgeting and planning processes in public hospitals in Kenya. We used a qualitative case study approach to examine these processes in two hospitals in Kenya. We collected data by in-depth interviews of national level policy makers, hospital managers, and frontline practitioners in the case study hospitals (n ...
Government stewardship of the for-profit private health sector in Afghanistan.
Published in Health policy and planning
The MoPH stewardship initiative is notable for its achievements to date under challenging circumstances. Its success is due to the focus on developing a solid policy framework and building institutions and systems aimed at ensuring higher quality private services, and a rational long-term and sustainable role for the private sector. Although the Mo...
The inequity of inpatient services in rural areas and the New-Type Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS) in China: re...
Published in Health policy and planning
Who bears the cost of 'informal mhealth'? Health-workers' mobile phone practices and associated political-moral economie...
Published in Health policy and planning
Africa's recent communications 'revolution' has generated optimism that using mobile phones for health (mhealth) can help bridge healthcare gaps, particularly for rural, hard-to-reach populations. However, while scale-up of mhealth pilots remains limited, health-workers across the continent possess mobile phones. This article draws on interviews fr...
