Inducing a change in policy
In their first output on pro-poor health policies, Which health policies are pro-poor?, the DFID Health Systems Resource Centre (HSRC) proposes three complementary strategies for pro-poor health policy. It illustrates the need for a systemic approach of pro-poor health policy.
The strategies are:
- ensuring the poor are covered by public health services. Actions include setting appropriate targeting mechanisms to capture the population in need
- improving access to and quality of health services used by the poor. Actions include regulating the supply-side in terms of benefit package, management and institutional arrangements, as well as performance objectives achievements
- avoiding heavy expenditures by the poor on health care which exacerbates their poverty. Actions include the design and implementation of appropriate health assistance schemes
Inducing a successful change requires cohesion in the different steps of policy development (initiation, formulation, design, implementation, monitoring). In Health financing: designing and implementing pro-poor policies, Bennett and Gilson state that the outcome of a pro-poor health financing mechanism depends critically upon detailed issues of design and implementation.
These issues include:
- Integrating considerations for the poor during the design phase even for strategies which do not primarily address the poor (e.g. social health insurance scheme)
- Capacity for pro-poor schemes needs to be developed including: broader consultations with the poor; consensus built through public debate; technical skills developed and technicians given influence in policy design; management information systems developed.
- Using financing mechanisms to promote high quality and responsive services for the poor, not only through health services strengthening strategies but also through Reforming existing organisational mechanisms.
- Designing and implementing exemptions mechanisms for strategies which may adversely affect the welfare of the very poor.
- Monitoring and evaluating impact on the poor
- Which health policies are pro-poor?
- ( Department for International Development Health Systems Resource Centre , 1999)
- How can health policies and health system developments improve the health of poor people? This initial working paper for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) by the DFID Health Syste...
- Health financing: designing and implementing pro-poor policies
- ( S. Bennett; L. Gilson / Department for International Development Health Systems Resource Centre , 2001)
- How should health care be financed in developing countries, and how does the system of financing impact health care for the poor? This issues paper, written for the UK Department for International Dev...
