Latest Equinet Updates

Since 2003, EQUINET and HST have implemented a longer term programme of work that has carried out a wider review of the literature on the distribution and migration of health personnel in the region and a regional research programme aimed at building analytic capacity, evidence and policy engagement around the issue. EQUINET and HST collaborated with a consortium of institutions in southern Africa and internationally, known as the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Network, in order to link this southern African programme of work with wider international work on the equitable distribution of health personnel in southern Africa. In January 2004 a call for research proposals was made within a framework set out from the literature and policy review. The proposals were reviewed and a number of these selected for participation in a regional meeting. Between 15 and 17 April 2004, the Health Systems Trust and EQUINET organised the regional meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, bringing together researchers and stakeholders from southern and western African, Canada, the UK, USA and Australia.

The EQUINET regional meeting on Human Resources for Health August 19-20 2005 in Johannesburg South Africa discussed and debated Human Resources for Health (HRH) research and policy with a view to improving the equitable distribution of HRH within southern Africa. By the end of the deliberations, the delegates from government, non government, health worker, national, regional and international level at the meeting highlighted key areas of shared perspective on HRH.

An Equity Watch is a means of monitoring progress on health equity by gathering, organising, analysing, reporting and reviewing evidence on equity in health. Equity Watch work is being implemented in countries in eastern and southern Africa in line with national and regional policy commitments. In February 2010 the Regional Health Ministers' Conference of the ECSA Health Community resolved that countries should 'report on evidence on health equity and progress in addressing inequalities in health'. This report provides an array of evidence on the responsiveness of Tanzania’s health system in promoting and attaining equity in health and health care, using the Equity Watch framework. The report introduces the context and the evidence within four major areas: equity in health, household access to the resources for health, equitable health systems and global justice. It shows past levels (1980–2005), current levels (most current data publicly available) and comments on the level of progress towards health equity.

This report updates the 2008 Zimbabwe Equity Watch report using a framework developed by EQUINET in cooperation with the eastern, central and southern African health community and in consultation with WHO and UNICEF. The report introduces the context and the evidence within four major areas: equity in health, household access to the resources for health, equitable health systems and global justice. It shows past levels (1980–2005), current levels (most current data publicly available) and comments on the level of progress towards health equity. The 2011 Equity Watch indicates that improvements have been made in priority areas identified in the 2008 Equity Watch report, such as in primary education, in supplies of medicines and staff to primary care and district levels, in immunisation coverage, in access to antiretrovirals, and in recognition and support of community capacities for health. Nevertheless, the report shows that poverty and inequality in wealth remain high. Economic inequality affects access to key inputs to health, like improved incomes or safe water and the uptake of health services.