Research Articles

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Making Development Assistance Work For Africa: From Aid-Dependent Disease Control To The New Public Health Order
(Health Policy and Planning, 2023) Nonvignon, J.; Soucat, A.; Ofori-Adu, P.; Adeyi, O.
The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed the fragility of pre-crisis African health systems, in which too little was invested over the past decades. Yet, development assistance for health (DAH) more than doubled between 2000 and 2020, raising questions about the role of and effectiveness of DAH in triggering and sustaining health system investments. This paper analyses the inter-regional variations and trends of DAH in Africa in relation to some key indicators of health system financing and service delivery performance, examining (1) the trends of DAH in the five regional economic communities of Africa since 2000; (2) the relationship between DAH spending and health system performance indicators, and (3) the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of aid substitution for domestic financing, policy-making, and accountability. Africa is diverse, and the health financing picture has evolved differently in its subregions. DAH represents 10% of total spending in Africa in 2020, but DAH has benefited Southern Africa significantly more than other regions over the past two decades. Results in terms of progress towards universal Health coverage (UHC) is slightly associated with DAH. Overall, DAH may also have substituted for public domestic funding and undermined the formation of sustainable UHC financing models. As the COVID-19 crisis hit, DAH did not increase at the country level. We conclude that the The current architecture of official development assistance (ODA) is no longer fit for purpose. It requires urgent transformation to place countries at the centre of its use. Domestic financing of public health institutions should be at the core of African social contracts. We call for a deliberate reassessment of ODA modalities, repurposing DAH on what it could sustainably finance. Finally, we call for a new, transparent framework to monitor DAH to capture its contribution to building institutions and systems.
Capacity building for implementation research: a methodology for advancing health research and practice
(Health Research Policy and Systems, 2020-06-01) Dako-Gyeke, P.; Asampong, E.; Afari, E.; Launois, P.; Ackumey, M.; Opoku-Mensah, K.; Dery, S.; Akweongo, P.; Nonvignon, J.; Aikins, M.
Background Implementation research is increasingly being recognised as an important discipline seeking to maximise the benefits of evidence-based interventions. Although capacity-building efforts are ongoing, there has been limited attention on the contextual and health system peculiarities in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, given the challenges encountered during the implementation of health interventions, the field of implementation research requires a creative attempt to build expertise for health researchers and practitioners simultaneously. With support from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, we have developed an implementation research short course that targets both researchers and practitioners. This paper seeks to explain the course development processes and report on training evaluations, highlighting its relevance for inter-institutional and inter-regional capacity strengthening. Methods The development of the implementation research course curriculum was categorised into four phases, namely the formation of a core curriculum development team, course content development, internal reviews and pilot, and external reviews and evaluations. Five modules were developed covering Introduction to implementation research, Methods in implementation research, Ethics and quality management in implementation research, Community and stakeholder engagement, and Dissemination in implementation research. Course evaluations were conducted using developed tools measuring participants’ reactions and learning. Results From 2016 to 2018, the IR curriculum has been used to train a total of 165 researchers and practitioners predominantly from African countries, the majority of whom are males (57%) and researchers/academics (79.4%). Participants generally gave positive ratings (e.g. integration of concepts) for their reactions to the training. Under ‘learnings’, participants indicated improvement in their knowledge in areas such as identification of implementation research problems and questions. Conclusion The approach for training both researchers and practitioners offers a dynamic opportunity for the acquisition and sharing of knowledge for both categories of learners. This approach was crucial in demonstrating a key characteristic of implementation research (e.g. multidisciplinary) practically evident during the training sessions. Using such a model to effectively train participants from various low- and middle-income countries shows the opportunities this training curriculum offers as a capacity-building tool.
Health status and labour force participation in sub-saharan Africa: A dynamic panel data analysis
(African Development Review, 2015-03) Novignon, J.; Arthur, E.; Nonvignon, J.
Sub‐Saharan African countries face significant health challenges, with several countries still far from reaching the health‐related targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The implication of this on economic growth and individual welfare is daunting. An important channel through which population health affects economic performance is labour supply and productivity. The objective of the study was to investigate a macro level relationship between population health status and labour force participation in sub‐Saharan Africa. The study used panel data covering 46 countries from 1990 to 2011. A dynamic panel data model was estimated using the generalized method of moments. The results show that population health status (measured by life expectancy at birth) relates positively with labour force participation. The relationship was significant for total and female labour force participation. The findings call for improved population health status following the importance of labour force participation at the macro levels. Improved labour force contributes to the economic performance of a country at the macro level. Effective policy efforts should be directed towards providing facilities that will improve population health hence providing enough healthy time to participate in the labour force.

Research Articles

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results