Issues in operationalising joint health and social protection agendas

Despite the shared conceptual ground between the health and social protection agendas, in practice there is limited experience anywhere of effective inter-sectoral collaboration on these issues. Relative to ministries of health, national agencies dealing with social welfare or social development tend to lack both status and funds, which reduces their capacity for engagement and for forging joint work programmes. Nevertheless, the importance of working across sectors in an integrated way is starting to be recognised.

There are opportunities for donor agencies to highlight the shared agenda in higher-level policy processes, such as the PRSP process. Another is to support initiatives to bring citizen voice
into the debate, in recognition of the important role that can be played by civil society in holding governments to account for non-performance on issues of poverty and health. 

The identification of opportunities to support joint working between ministries will depend on deepening understanding of institutional capacities and arrangements in different contexts. It will also depend on being in a position to recognise – and respond in a timely way – to opportunities (or ‘political moments’) that lend themselves to the development of integrated policy.