TARSC Annual Report 2005 - Training and Research Support Centre

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2.1.3 Other research While the major focus of research has been community based and participatory research, TARSC has also implemented and reported on a number of other formal research activities in 2004, adding to a research portfolio in occupational health, public health, HIV and AIDS, health equity, social security, food security and nutrition, gender equity, child and adolescent health and social development, reproductive health and various areas of social and economic progress. The Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) is dedicated to influencing both national and regional policies of the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to ensure equity in health. It does so by networking professionals, civil society and policy makers to promote policies for equity in health, undertaking research, initiating conferences, workshops, and discussions through the internet, and providing inputs at the SADC forums. Equinet was initiated in 1997 after the Kasane Meeting on Equity in Health in southern Africa by a network of southern African Institutions. EQUINET is a consortium of a much larger number of institutions and its work programme extends well beyond TARSC activities. TARSC provides secretariat and technical support to the network through Rene Loewenson, Godfrey Musuka and Zvikomborera Mlambo. Further information on the network and its participating institutions and supporting partners in specific areas of work can be found at www.equinetafrica.org. EQUINET has implemented research in areas where evidence is needed to support equitable public policy and where debate exists on paths to improving health equity. Consultation across work programmes, with various constituencies affirmed the commitment to shared values of equity, social justice and to the right to health. The EQUINET programme as a whole is proactive and affirmative, to build the health systems that deliver on these values in our region. Across EQUINET, the ‘reclaiming the state’ agenda defined at the conference in June 2004 was explored. The network reached a consensus on 2005 that with the current challenges and conditions in the region, the priority that this implies is to revitalise and build national peoples’ health systems so that we have publicly-funded comprehensive, people centred and people driven equitable and universal health systems. The April 2005 EQUINET Steering committee meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa reviewed, debated and identified these major goals, perspectives and areas of work on equity and social justice in health, drawing also on the resolutions of a meeting for fourteen major networks of health civil society held in February 2005 in Zambia that raised civil society priorities for regional work in health. The April 2005 meeting proposed two areas of follow up to take these priorities forward. Towards this EQUINET held in October 2005 in Harare, Zimbabwe a regional review meeting that brought together steering committee members; theme, process and country co-ordinators; colleagues working in key areas of work central to EQUINET’s agenda; and civil society colleagues. The meeting reviewed EQUINET current work to shape and critically debate the form and content for the annual equity analysis at regional (and country) level. In line with the shared framework above, the October steering committee meeting reviewed the work of themes and processes in the network and identified a more detailed spectrum of messages arising from existing work around which the evidence, knowledge, debates and engagement on the equity analysis can be organised. This is contained in the full report of the meeting available on the EQUINET website. (www.equinetafrica,org). 10
EQUINET through CHESSORE and TARSC has been carrying out work on participatory mechanisms at primary care and district level, and their role in equitable resource allocation and service provision. In 2003/4 three field studies and a substantive literature review were implemented, and the work reported back and used at national level to review participatory mechanisms and at regional level to synthesise knowledge on towards policy intervention and training on participatory mechanisms for local government and health authorities. This work was reported at the Forum 9 of the Global Health Research Forum in Mumbai, India, 12-16 September 2005 (Rene Loewenson, Itai Rusike and Memory Zulu). Following the end of fieldwork activities, in January 2005 CHESSORE and TARSC hosted a participatory workshop in Kafue Gorge, Zambia that presented the field work and similar work from East and Southern Africa. This meeting is separately reported at www.equinetafrica.org. In 2005 REACH Trust with the equity task force in the Ministry of Health Malawi with support from TARSC carried out a study to apply the framework for monitoring in Malawi collating data up to 2004 using indicators developed at the regional meeting (see www.equinetafrica.org). With this practical example dialogue was established with WHO to implement this work on a wider scale with support from WHO EIP and WHO AFRO. We have implemented other research support to EQUINET: TARSC has worked with the parliamentary committee on health to support both research and capacity inputs in various areas of health equity, adolescent health and HIV and AIDS. In 2005 TARSC working within EQUINET and with the Global Equity Gauge Alliance continued to provide this support. In 2005 we have continued to implement a scheme to provide small grant support to student research in areas of equity in health, with six grants awarded in the region in 2005. The EQUINET programme officer at TARSC also carried out a study of ‘Career Plans of Parts III and IV Medical Students at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences’ and went on a study visit to the National Institute of Public Health Sweden to review the process of parliamentary engagement on health in Sweden and lessons for the region. TARSC through EQUINET has also provided technical and networking support to the Centre for Health Policy in South Africa which is the hub for the knowledge network on health systems in the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, as well as to the African Health Research Forum and the Municipal Services Project, South Africa. TARSC ANNUAL REPORT 2005 11
Page 3 and 4: Training and Research Support Centr
Page 5 and 6: 1. ABOUT US Training and Research S
Page 7 and 8: Our work is documented in a range o
Page 9: Community based research on the cos
Page 13 and 14: 2.2: Capacity building activities a
Page 15 and 16: In 2004 EQUINET through the Souther
Page 17 and 18: Portuguese in cooperation with orga
Page 19 and 20: 2.3: Information resources Our info

TARSC Annual Report 2005 - Training and Research Support Centre

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?