The impact of health sector reforms is one of the critical issues of ARROW's current work programme, hence our involvement in the Rights and Reforms project. This international women's NGO project was initiated in January 2002 and coordinated by the Women's Health Project, South Africa.

Aims

This research and advocacy initiative aims to:

• Strengthen understanding amongst activists and decision makers of the role of health sector reforms in facilitating or undermining efforts to achieve sexual and reproductive health and rights policies and programmes;
• Identify and advocate for strategies to maximise positive outcomes with regard to sexual and reproductive health and services

Focus

The key focus of this initiative are:

• health financing
• public/private partnerships
• priority setting in relation to the primary care package
• decentralisation of services
• integration of services
• service accountability and consumer / community participation in design and monitoring of policy and service implementation

Phase 1 (Jan 2002-Jun 2003)

• Region-wide networking to identify and link academics, advocates and governments in the public health, health financing, gender mainstreaming, law, population and SRHR fields;
• Literature reviews and information gathering through Africa, Asia, Latin America and internationally to learn lessons and identify gaps in knowledge;
• Hosting of expert consultations and a multi-disciplinary colloquium to assess findings, explore synergies and identify opportunities for research and advocacy.

Phase 2 (Jul 2003-Jul 2006)

• Identify and implement strategies for action through dialogues with international and national decision-makers and capacity building workshops with SRHR NGOs;
• Implement multi-country studies to explore the identified gaps in knowledge.

Planned Outputs for 2004

• International and regional advocacy strategy development and activities among the women NGO networks to address key issues
• Regional and national capacity building workshops of NGOs in understanding HSR and the advocacy agenda
• Country level case studies on the impact of health sector reforms will also begin

Papers

Here are the eighteen global papers based on six papers from each of the three regions (Asia, Africa and Latin America) focusing on:

• Health financing
• Priority setting
• Integration of services
• Accountability and community participation
• Public/private partnerships
• Decentralisation of services

To download the papers, click on the links below

Health Financing Reforms Asia 2004 in Word format

Health Sector Reform and PPP Asia 2004 in Word format

Integration of Reproductive Health Asia in Word format

Priority Setting in Health Sector Reform Asia 2004 in Word format

Service Accountability and Community Participation Asia in Word format

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