The Alternative Mining Indaba has been held annually since 2010 at the same time as the Mining Indaba to provide a platform for communities affected by mining to voice their concerns and be capacitated to fight for their rights. The theme for the 2018 AMI was: “Making Natural Resources Work for the People: Towards Just Legal, Policy and Institutional Reform”. This report presents information on a side session at the Indaba that aimed to raise and discuss the key public health challenges facing workers and communities in the extractive sector / mining in east and southern Africa, the strategies for responding to them, including proposals for harmonised regional health standards, and the proposals made by civil society to advance them.
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Advancing public health rights, claims and standards in mining, Report of a Side Session at the Alternative Mining Indaba, 6 February 2018, Cape Town South Africa
EQUINET; TARSC; SATUCC; Benchmarks Foundation; SADC CNGO, EQUINET, Harare, 2018
Advancing the right to health in east and southern Africa
CEHURD: EQUINET Regional workshop report, Garuga Country Lake Resort, Entebbe, 30 August 2017
In 2015-2018, CEHURD, under the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET) conducted a desk review of the implementation of constitutional provisions on the right to health in east and southern Africa. The objective of the workshop was to introduce the OPERA framework in the region, using evidence from Uganda. It aimed to 1. identify the main bottlenecks in implementing the right to health; 2. devise a common advocacy strategy that aims at removing the bottlenecks;. and 3 explore opportunities for applying this within the region. The workshop built on the previous validation of the Ugandan draft report on constitutional implementation of the right to health.
African Labour Radio Project: Health Worker Retention and Migration
EQUINET, Workers World Media Productions and SABC Channel Africa: April 2009
The fifteen minute pre-recorded show, ‘Health Worker Retention and Migration’, was produced by WWMP, in conjunction with labour journalists in east and southern Africa. It provided an in-depth analysis of the situation for health workers in Africa, and discussed incentives for retaining health workers. In the pre-recorded show, a Khayelitsha nurse who used to work at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town and migrated to Saudi Arabia Mavis Mpangele, Bongani Lose from Democratic Nurses of South Africa (DENOSA), Kwabena Otoo from the Ghana Trade union Congress, Joel Odijie from Nigeria Trade Union Congress, Professor Yoswa Dambisya of the University of Limpopo Department of Pharmacy and EQUINET Steering Committee, Nyasha Muchichwa from the Labour and Economic Research Institute of Zimbabwe and Percy Mahlathi, the South African Director General of the Department of Health were interviewed. The feature covers the push factors and experiences from different African countries. The feature also explores government responses to the problem as well as African trade unions response. It rounds off with examples of success stories in Zambia and Tanzania.
African responses to the 2014/5 Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic
Loewenson R, Papamichail A, Ayagah I: EQUINET Brief, Harare, 2015
There has been significant documentation on the various international responses to the 2014/5 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. There is also evidence that the epidemic
triggered new developments in epidemic prevention and response from Africa. In April 2015 the AU called for the lessons learned to be identified for future responses. This brief summarises the publicly available documentation on the response of African countries to the epidemic. It is based on 63 documents accessed through key word search in July–August 2015 of online databases, supplemented by documents obtained from snowballing in September 2015. The brief presents evidence on
a. The actions taken by African governments and institutions at national, regional and continental level to support the response to the epidemic.
b. The identified positive features and challenges in the African response.
c. The links between the African emergency response to the EVD epidemic and health system strengthening.
An assessment of the Zimbabwe government strategy for retention of health professionals
Chimbari MJ, Madhina D, Nyamangara F, Mtandwa H, Damba V
This poster presentation at the Global Health Worker Alliance Conference, March 2008, is based on a study that aimed to determine and assess the impacts of incentives instituted by the Zimbabwe government and non-government sector to retain Critical Health Professionals. It found that the tendency of health professionals to migrate has increased, even among low levels of staff and the macro-economic environment is the main driver of megration. Sustaining the retention incentives in this environment seems unattainable and bonding is unpopular and further increases migration.
Annotated bibliography of e- platforms used in participatory and peer to peer exchange and learning
Loewenson T: TARSC, EQUINET Harare, 2014
Visual and information technologies are now more diversified and widely accessible. Digital images and mapping enhance access and exchange on local realities; social media (blogs, tweets and others) provide new methods for communicating experience for collective analysis, mobile phones facilitate communication and pooling of evidence across wider social networks and mapping and crowd-sourcing technology provide systems for citizen reporting, including in poorest communities. internet based resources point to the possibilities for information technology to support peer to peer learning and participatory action research to overcome the ‘local’ nature of processes and link groups with shared interest. To support discussion on these areas this work aimed to provide an annotated description of existing internet resources that have features that may guide out thinking in developing an e platform for participatory reflection and action across similar groups in different areas.
Annotated bibliography: Social power, participation and accountability in health
Loewenson R and Tibazarwa K: TARSC, May 2013
This annotated bibliography was prepared as a resource for people working on different dimensions of social power, social participation and social accountability in health. Social power, participation and accountability are central concepts in building people centred health systems. This annotated bibliography was commissioned by the Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health (COPASAH) and prepared by Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) within the Regional Network for Equity on Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET). The annotated bibliography captures English language literature, and includes materials that are open access in full online. It focuses with a few exceptions on materials published post 2000 and is based on materials accessed through the use of social power / accountability/ participation in health as key words in online searches and literature forwarded from COPASAH members. The limitations of the compilation are discussed. The bibliography is presented in four parts: Section 1 presents papers on social power in health, Section 2 presents papers on social participation in health, Section 3 presents papers on social accountability in health, and Section 4 presents papers on the use of these three concepts in knowledge generation.
Are Health Centre Committees a Vehicle for Social Participation in Health? Report on a Regional HCC Review Meeting, June 2017
CWGH; TARSC; UCT; LDHO: EQUINET, Harare 2017
EQUINET through the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) as the cluster lead for the work on social empowerment in health, in partnership with Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC), University of Cape Town (UCT) and Lusaka District Health Office (LDHO), with support from Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) have embarked on a regional programme, ‘HCCs as a vehicle for social participation in health systems in East and Southern Africa’ to address some of the outcomes mentioned above. This report documents the proceedings during the Regional HCC exchange visit held at Mwanza clinic, Goromonzi district on the 20th of June 2017 and the review meeting held in Harare on the 21st of June 2017. The meeting aimed to: discuss experiences with laws, policies, guidelines and constitutions on HCCs; share experiences in using Photovoice to enhance the role of HCCs; discuss current training materials and programmes for HCCs in the region and discuss strengthening of internal capacities of institutions working with HCCs through information exchange and skills inputs.
Areas of investigation for the Health Systems Knowledge Network: An initial scoping of the literature
Gilson L, Doherty J, TARSC, for the The Health Systems Knowledge Network Hub
This review was prepared as an outline for the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health for a knowledge network exploring the role of health systems in health equity and the social determinants of health. It presents data showing that health services tend to be used proportionately more by richer than poorer social groups. It analyses the social factors affecting access to, and uptake of, health services and shows how these interact with inequitable features of the health care system. Overall, the review argues that the interaction between household health-seeking behaviour and experience of the health system generates differential health and economic consequences across social groups. The long-term costs of seeking care often impoverish poorer households, reinforcing pre-existing social stratification. These are costs that can be addressed by deliberate aspects of health system design.
Brief: COVID-19 in East and Southern Africa: developments in the pandemic, July 2020
EQUINET and ECSA HC: Mimeo, 2020
This information sheet is the second presenting work summarising evidence as of July 17 2020 from official and scientific population data across countries in east and southern Africa (ESA) on the COVID-19 pandemic, the responses to it and the relationship with other indicators of population health, health systems and health determinants. The information sheet aims to address four questions: What is happening with COVID-19 testing and detection? How and where is the epidemic progressing over time? How has the health system responded? What are the implications for wider vulnerability? In terms of the epidemic profile, increased testing has improved case detection, although still at low levels for an effective public health response. The pandemic continued to take different forms in different ESA countries. In terms of the health system response, the evidence in July indicated continued constraints in accessing diagnostics, limiting case detection, despite reasonable surveillance capacities. In terms of wider vulnerability, the slower, sustained increase in cases in the ESA region were noted to raise concern on the effects of sustained implementation of measures such as school and workplace closures.