Dear HIFA colleagues,
Our discussion centres on the question: "How can decision-making processes for health systems strengthening and universal health coverage be made more inclusive, responsive and accountable?"
Would it be helpful for us to build a typology of decision-making processes and/or a typology of decision-makers/policymakers? Do such typologies already exist?
I look forward to your thoughts on which processes, and which policymakers, are especially important to drive health system strengthening and universal health caoverage.
Can you give any examples of decision-making processes, perhaps with reference to their inclusiveness, responsiveness and accountability (or lack thereof)?
To start us off, I would like to give an example of a policy process (as I understand it). The World Health Organization produces guidance on a topic, using a rigorous process that aims to draw on all available evidence (it's interesting to note that this approach has only been in place for 2-3 decades - prior to that, guidelines were based largely on expert opinion). Evidence is then 'contextualised' at national level, typically led by the Ministry of Health with variable degrees of involvement by WHO country office, civil society organisations and others. These latter processes are, I think, quite complex as they need to integrate local evidence (and realities) with global evidence, while giving a voice to all stakeholders.
I look forward to hear your thoughts about policymaking, particularly at the national level, and how this works (or doesn't). Do you have experience in the development of global guidance by WHO or other international health agency? What steps did you take to make the guidance useful to policymakers at country level? What has been learned from the interactions between global guidance developers and policymakers?
Also, to what extent is there civil society engagement in global guidance development? I have seen that often (always?) new guidance is drafted and then disseminated for public comment before finalising.
And which countries might be cited as examples of strong civil society engagement? (Australia is one such example, as we have heard from HIFA member Ann Lawless in our previous WHO-sponsored discussion on Learning for quality health services.) How might their eample inform and inpire others to be more inclusive, responsive and accountable?
We look forward to hear your thoughts. Please send to hifa@hifaforums.org
Best wishes, Neil
Joint Coordinator, HIFA SUPPORT-SYSTEMS
https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-support-systems-how-can-decision-makin...
Let's build a future where every person has access to reliable healthcare information and is protected from misinformation - Join HIFA: www.hifa.org
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is global coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in official relations with WHO. HIFA brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information. Twitter: @hifa_org neil@hifa.org
