Latest Equinet Updates

EQUINET in co-operation with ECSA-HC have, with government and researchers in five countries, carried out review and field studies on the implementation of incentives for health worker retention and of their impact on the adequacy and distribution of health workers. A regional meeting will be held in February 2009 to review this work and other work on health worker migration and distribution in EQUINET in Windhoek Namibia, locally hosted by the University of Namibia. If you are interested in this meeting please contact us at admin@equinetafrica.org, using "HCW Retention meeting" in the subject line.

The objective of this consultation was ‘to speed up and scale up country responses to the human resource needs of both the UN Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health (Every Woman Every Child), and the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections Among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive (Global Plan) as a key aspect of both plans’. The intended outcomes of this consultation were broadly stated as: identification of concrete opportunities for progress as well as obstacles to such progress; and documentation of experiences on successes and failures. Through a combination of interactive sessions, the Consultation reviewed progress at country level, what technical support exists, and good practices within the countries. Participants at the Consultation underscored the need for ministries of health, continental mechanisms such as the AUC, regional organisations such as ECSA HC, SADC, WAHO and OCEAC, development partners, faith-based organisations, funding agencies, academic and research institutions, and civil society organisations to give priority to efforts towards increasing access to health workers at the frontline for better maternal and child survival and provided a communique of recommendations on actions to achieve this.

The EQUINET and MRC meeting on Food Security and Nutrition in east and southern Africa sought to bring together case study writers and expert facilitators that have been working on nutrition initiatives, policies, and to update them on the prevailing situation, current interventions, equity and policies on food security. The meeting took a focus on how health systems can advance and encourage food sovereignty, including community control and enhanced gender equity in food production. The meeting established the framework for a series of case studies that demonstrate and examine health system approaches to food sovereignty that will be implemented in 2006.

The ECSA Secretariat organised the first Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Expert Core Group meeting in Harare Zimbabwe from 12th to 16th July 2010. The participants came from Member States of Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and Mauritius and international partners, namely EQUINET, UNICEF, ESARO, WHOIST/ESA and USAID-EA. The meeting deliberated and agreed on the Terms of Reference for the regional M&E Expert Group. The meeting also updated the HMC Monitoring tool, adopted with amendments the Regional Core set of indicators that will be used to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), finalised the M & E Framework, developed indicators to monitor the implementation of the HMC resolutions and included indicators to monitor health equity in order to address inequalities in health in the region. In addition, the meeting resolved that it was necessary to monitor other codes, protocols and conventions such as the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International recruitment of health personnel. The indicators and the monitoring tools agreed upon by the expert core group will not only make it easier to compare member states in progress towards achieving the MDGs, addressing equity issues in health and implementation of the HMC resolutions, but also will be valuable in evaluation of in country changes from the baseline. The meeting also discussed, reviewed and adopted the Equity watch work in east and southern African countries.