Participation of nongovernmental organizations in Iran's health-care system: challenges and suggestions for improvement

Strategies to strengthen non-governmental organizations' participation in the Iranian health system

Background

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) added a new dimension to intersectoral action for health. Involving the NGOs in health system strengthening could lead to a more efficient, equitable, and better-governed healthcare system. This qualitative study explored effective strategies for NGO participation in the Iranian health system to achieve broader health system goals.

Method

We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews with health policymakers and planners, NGO actors at the national and provincial levels, and other key informants. The qualitative data were analyzed through a thematic analysis approach. Trustworthiness in the study was observed at all stages of the study.

Result

Four main themes- were identified: empowerment for learning leadership and management skills, creating active participation in policy-making, capacity building for participation, clarifying participation process, falling into 17 sub-themes. Along with the government and health sector policymakers, NGOs may have a significant role in improving health system goals and increasing equity, social responsiveness, financial risk protection, and efficiency.

Conclusion

The participation of NGOs in the Iranian health system is a complex process. All elements and dimensions of this process need to be considered when developing a platform for the appropriate participation of NGOs in the health system functions. Evidence-informed strategies for strengthening the participation of NGOs in the health system should be used to utilize NGOs potential to the fullest.

Nonprofit capacity and social performance: mapping the field and future directions

Nonprofit organizations are critical actors in the Sustainable Development Goals as they provide a wide range of social services to the community and contribute to creating a sustainable future. They must compete for funding or government contracts by showing high social performance. Among the top factors influencing social performance is capacity, and it has received considerable attention in public and nonprofit literature. Capacity refers to the resources, capabilities, and practices required to perform their functions to achieve the social mission and high social performance. However, studies concerning capacity linked with social performance remain controversial. Understanding the linkage between capacity and social performance is relevant to funders, board directors, and management as it helps them enhance organizational performance. This research aims to assess the flow of knowledge in the study field and make recommendations for future research. The study focuses on capacity of nonprofits and thoroughly reviews the literature using complementary bibliometric analysis: co-occurrence analysis of keywords, sources, and authors and bibliographic coupling analysis of documents. We conduct a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1955 and 2022. Seven significant themes emerge among the most prominent researchers: (1) the link between capacity and social performance; (2) dimensions of capacity; (3) human resource capacity linked with social performance: (4) financial capacity linked with social performance; (5) capacity building linked with social performance; (6) collaboration and capacity; and (7) factors affecting capacity–social performance. The literature on nonprofits is determined to have inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between capacity and social performance. Research on various factors influencing capacity–social performance relationships is also scarce. This article highlights major principles in the discipline and identifies significant theoretical gaps in the body of knowledge. It also outlines the conceptual foundation for the study and makes recommendations for further research. From a managerial standpoint, the study sheds light on whether capacity is linked to higher performance levels and provides policymakers with guidelines on the implications of capacity building and collaboration.

Identifying the non-governmental organizations' activities and challenges in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

Background

The spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic have been to such an extent that to shape an effective, collective response, governments need the participation of society and the cooperation of a wide range of civil society organizations and institutions. The objective of this study was to identify the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in response to the covid-19 pandemic in Iran and the challenges they confronted.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative analysis based on twenty-two individual, virtual, and semi-structured interviews. Interviewees were selected through purposeful and snowball sampling. All interviews were performed with active health-related NGO representatives willing to participate in the study and continued until data saturation. Data analysis was performed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

The activities and challenges raised by NGO representatives were identified in 6 main categories, including the need for the participation of NGOs in the fight against pandemics, response to the COVID-19 crisis in the society, challenges in providing services to the target group in the COVID-19 crisis, NGOs challenges in interacting with governmental and non-governmental institutions, information sources used by NGOs in the COVID-19 crisis and strategies to support NGOs in their efforts.

Conclusion

Considering the crucial challenges for their participation, such as the NGO access to the target groups, lack of communication network, and constructive interaction between government institutions and the NGOs, it is recommended to increase the capacity of these institutions and intervene to establish a constructive and long-term relationship with the government.