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Wang Z, Liang Z, Dong X, Gao L, Zhou S, Yin H, Jin Y, Zheng ZJ. Health policy competencies in regional organizations: a retrospective analysis for 76 regional organizations from 1945 to 2015. Global Health 2024; 20:17. [PMID: 38409001 PMCID: PMC10895825 DOI: 10.1186/s12992-024-01023-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Health policy competencies of regional organizations include mandates to create regional health laws and policies, as well as authorities that allow member states to undertake collective actions in the health field. The examination of the health policy competencies of regional organizations is essential, as it constitutes an important prerequisite for regional organizations to govern regional health. This study aims to map the development trajectory of health policy competencies in regional organizations worldwide and investigate their potential correlates. This will contribute to the enhanced promotion of both existing and new regional health cooperation. METHODS This retrospective analysis utilized the health policy competencies of the 76 regional organizations worldwide from 1945 to 2015, as investigated in the Regional Organizations Competencies Database. By aggregating member state data from various sources such as the IHME Global Burden of Disease 2019, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, we extracted the mean values and coefficients of variation for the covariates in regional organization characteristics, socioeconomic and demographic factors, health status and health-system capacity. The correlation between changes in the health policy scope of regional organizations and independent variables was analyzed using Poisson pseudo-likelihood regression with multiple levels of fixed effects. RESULTS From 1945 to 2015, the number of regional organizations with health policy competencies experienced a slow growth stage before 1991 and an explosive growth stage post-1991. By 2015, 48 out of the 71 existing regional organizations had developed their health policy competencies, yet 26 (54.2%) of these organizations possessed only 1-2 health policy competencies. An enhancement in the health policy scope of a regional organization correlated with its founding year, a greater number of policy fields, higher under-five mortality, and larger disparities in trade and healthcare access and quality indexes among member states. In contrast, larger disparities in population, under-five mortality and health worker density among member states, along with more hospital beds per capita, were negatively correlated with the expansion of a regional organization's health policy scope. CONCLUSION Since 1991, there has been a surge of interest in health among regional organizations, although health remains a secondary priority for them. The health policy competencies of regional organizations are pivotal for promoting social equity within regional communities. Its establishment is also closely linked to the level and disparities among member states in aspects such as trade, population, child mortality rates, and health system capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zongbin Wang
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Zhisheng Liang
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xuejie Dong
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Liqun Gao
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Shuduo Zhou
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Hui Yin
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yinzi Jin
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Zheng
- Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China.
- Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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Herrero MB, de Oliveira BNL. Health Science Research at a Regional Level: Insights From South America Comment on "The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives". Int J Health Policy Manag 2023; 12:8076. [PMID: 37579358 PMCID: PMC10702384 DOI: 10.34172/ijhpm.2023.8076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The article seeks to shed light on the role of regional organizations in strengthening health research systems in Africa, how they operate and how they work, as well as debts and future challenges. As can be observed also in South America, the continued strengthening of health research requires strategic thinking about the roles, comparative advantages, and capacity of regional organizations to facilitate the flourishing of health research systems. Health research is a strategic field for the transformation of socio-health inequalities on the one hand and the reduction of regional asymmetries on the other. Thus, regional organizations represent key actors in strengthening health research systems and the regional research agenda reinforces its sovereign condition in the autonomous definition of relevant topics and financing. In this process, integration mechanisms face a great challenge, as shown by the recent pandemic, not only in Africa but also in South America.
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Affiliation(s)
- María Belén Herrero
- Department of International Relations, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Ferrinho P, Makanga M, Sarfraz S, Poz MD. The abiding, hidden, and pervasive centrality of the health research workforce. HUMAN RESOURCES FOR HEALTH 2023; 21:39. [PMID: 37170121 PMCID: PMC10173916 DOI: 10.1186/s12960-023-00821-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Research for health and development (R4HD) acknowledges that many of the determinants of health lie outside the boundaries of the health system. The size and quality of the health and care workforce (HCWF) are key drivers towards the future trajectory of many of these factors. We consider researchers for health and development an abiding, pervasive but neglected constituent part of this HCWF. This workforce straddles many professional groups and sectors. The diversity of occupations, lack of standardization in occupational cadres, the complexity and gendered aspects of the labour market, and the variable demographic, epidemiological, socio-economic and health systems' contexts in the global south and the global north, led to a kaleidoscopic perception of the health research workforce that have kept it hidden from public opinion. This led to neglect by science as well as health policymakers and created an orphan sub-set of the HCWF. Understanding the health researchers' labour market will help to identify means to develop, retain and utilize the health research workforce, addressing size, composition, role, skills transferability, careers and social impact through building, enabling or sustaining its research functions, capacity, employment opportunities and career tracks, among other issues. This thematic series of the Human Resources for Health Journal, calls for papers that go beyond narrow conceptual approaches and professional understandings of health care workers and the health research workforce, and requests that contributors examine important workforce issues through the broad lens of R4HD within a sustainable development goals framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Ferrinho
- Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, NOVA University of Lisbon, 1349-008, Lisbon, Portugal.
| | - Michael Makanga
- European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), The Hague, The Netherlands
| | - Shabnum Sarfraz
- P2Impact Associates Pakistan, Women in Global Health, Harvard Global Health Institute, Cambridge, United States of America
| | - Mario Dal Poz
- Institute of Social Medicine (IMS), University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Carmody P. The Geopolitics of Health Science Research Comment on "The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives". Int J Health Policy Manag 2022; 12:7516. [PMID: 37579454 PMCID: PMC10125227 DOI: 10.34172/ijhpm.2022.7516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/26/2022] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
African development is defined by a number of meta-trends, including climate disruption, digitalisation, informalisation, regionalisation and most recently the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The paper under consideration here is informed primarily by two of these: regionalism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Africa, or at least parts of it, have been severely affected by pandemics in recent decades. At the same time deepening regionalisation allows for more coordinated and effective actions to mitigate their worst effects. However, to date, regional integration efforts have not generally delivered desired results, and in the area of Health Science Research (HSciR) specifically, which is the area of focus for this paper. This important paper considers the nature of current activities in relation to health research by regional organizations on the continent. It provides a baseline study and incipient manifesto for increased effectiveness and greater contribution in the area of HSciR on the continent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pádraig Carmody
- Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
- School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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