Recommended reading
International health partnership (IHP+) country health sector teams: background literature review
Country health sector teams in ten countries
Authors:
A. Harmer
Publisher:
Department for International Development Health Resource Centre (HRC), 2008
This review outlines the current arrangements for country health sector teams (CHSTs) in ten International Health Partnership countries: Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria and Zambia. It provides a summary of good practice and effective national coordination in health and HIV/AIDS. The review draws on the National AIDS Councils/Commissions, explains Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), and explores the lessons learnt from them. Experiences in coordination and working practices are also described from the education sector and the peacekeeping/ humanitarian sector.
The document then moves on to summarise the tools and mechanisms used to promote effective coordination and examine the obstacles to CHST in meeting their commitments. The review concludes that literature on CHSTs is scant, particularly in academic journals. Most of what is currently known comes from work being conducted by think tanks. It explains how much of the peer-reviewed literature on coordination in the ten International Health Partnership countries and other low income countries, focuses on CCMs and/or National HIV/AIDS Councils. Quality longitudinal studies of coordination practices in-country are very thin on the ground and that they are also out of date. A number of general recommendations that might assist future coordination efforts are provided.
