Latest Equinet Updates

The workshop took participants through the writing process from developing a key message, planning the structure of writing, to writing the specific sections of scientific papers such as the title, abstract, keywords, executive summary, introduction, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions and references; on various aspects of peer-reviewed publishing and on issues of authorship, copyright and plagiarism.

A two-day consultation on health committees as vehicles for community participation was held in Cape Town on September 27th and 28th 2014 prior to the 3rd Global Health Systems Research Conference. The meeting, funded by the International Development Research Council (IDRC Canada), had 38 participants from 12 countries of which nine were African countries. The meeting build on previous regional networking to share experiences of health committees as vehicles for community participation from countries across the globe. The discussion focused particularly on health committees in the African region, but benefited from considerations of experiences from other countries of the South (Guatemala and India). The discussions also reaffirmed the importance of health committees for Health System responsiveness and highlighted the importance of health committees as autonomous structures able to enhance democratic governance of health systems through monitoring and evaluation of health service performance and holding the state accountable. This applies irrespective of how services are delivered. To achieve this, it is critically important for health committees to be capacitated to fulfil this role through appropriate training, health systems design and sustainable support. Government should recognize the importance of health committees for their health systems, and invest appropriate human and financial resources to ensure functional health committees. Such investments are part of state obligations with respect to realising the Right to Health. Further, strategies must be developed to obtain buy-in of health workers, managers and policy-makers in supporting meaningful participation by health committees.

In October 2004, EQUINET and the Equi-TB programme Malawi hosted a regional meeting in Lilongwe Malawi to review options for monitoring equity and health systems issues in the current programmes to expand treatment access in the region. The meeting gathered government, academic, civil society, international and UN agencies and regional organisations from the SADC region. It aimed to propose a framework and follow up work to strengthen the monitoring of equity and health system issues in ART rollout at national and regional level. The meeting proposed that existing monitoring integrate key policy issues, three core indicators and thirteen shortlist indicators at local, national, regional and global level to track priority health systems and equity concerns.

Commissioned by the World Health Organization (Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights - Social Determinants of Health) and the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET) through REACH Trust and Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) – 2010. “….Barriers that prevent access to antiretroviral treatment services (ART) are often socially determined. Using the Tanahashi model of health service coverage and by identifying areas of health systems and programs where action needs to be strengthened to improve equity, this publication proposes a set of potential indicators to monitor equity in access to ART. Monitoring equity in access helps decision-makers to reach people frequently excluded from treatment and facilitates efforts to overcome barriers by addressing their social determinants, within and beyond the health system. This jointly prepared publication follows up previous WHO work that explores the barriers and social determinants that impact on specific health conditions presented in the book "Equity, social determinants and public health programmes" (2010). It also builds on over 8 years of policy dialogue and research in east and southern Africa in EQUINET on equity in health, with a particular focus on HIV and AIDS. The rationale, concepts and indicators included in this publication can be further refined and adapted in the future to measure equity in access to health services or to other public health programs (e.g. TB, non-communicable diseases).