Key issues guide on service delivery... (7)
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I would like to respond to some of the comments made by Peter
Burgess concerning the message I recently posted.
I edit the Health Systems Resource Guide (HSRG). This guide is
an online information service focusing on key policy issues in
delivering health care in developing countries. The guide is a
collaboration between Eldis, one of a family of knowledge ser-
vices run by the Institute of Development Studies, UK and the
DFID funded Health Resource Centre. It brings together and syn-
thesises research knowledge and experience from diverse sources
in order to inform policy debates.
Peter referred to the recently raised issue of phantom aid, and
suggested that the resource guide fell into this category (see
http://www.eldis.org/ds/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC18480&resource=healthsystems
for a brief summary of and link to the Action Aid article or
broader coverage of the issue at
http://community.eldis.org/webx?14@@.eeb685a ). Recognising that
large amounts of development funds are spent on research, too
much of which remains buried in academic journals, IDS has long
been involved in efforts to get research into the hands of those
who can use it to make a difference in tackling poverty and in-
justice. The HSRG is part of this effort. We hope we are maxi-
mising the impact of research undertaken by broadening access to
it - not only by academics in the north but development profes-
sionals, NGO activists, journalists, policy makers and others
from around the world.
My announcement was referring to a new section in the HSRG ex-
ploring Service Delivery in Difficult Environments. This new key
issues guide is an example of how we have built on a body of
work commissioned by DFID, as well as other research, and tried
to make this research accessible to broader audiences by synthe-
sising key points from the findings. We are interested to hear
your thoughts on the guide and suggestions for additional mate-
rial.
The Health Sector Financing and Performance Measurement links,
to which Peter refers, are 2 of the 10 topic guides within the
broader HSRG. They are intended to provide busy users with a
quick introduction to the issues, as well as highlight key read-
ings.
Peter was disappointed with the readings he found on these two
sections. While I am unclear whether he was looking specifically
for material related to service delivery in difficult environ-
ments, or more broadly, I do acknowledge that these sections are
not as diverse as we would like them to be - we are constantly
looking for different perspectives and evidence to put into
these sections. We would welcome suggestions from Peter and oth-
ers for social science research from other sources and perspec-
tives with which we could provide a better picture of these im-
portant areas.
Finally, given the nature of recent discussions, we hope that
some of you might be interested in a new dossier we will be
launching shortly. The "Meeting Health-related Needs of the Very
Poor" Dossier looks at different strategies for reaching the
very poor within the health sector.
Very finally, I'd like to thank Wendy Holmes for her endorsement
of our work, we are always interested in feedback positive or
negative (constructive preferred!). I would be very interested
to hear from AFRO-NETS members whether any aspect of the Health
Systems Resource Guide is useful in your work. I would also wel-
come comments and suggestions from list members on research, ex-
periences and perspectives on the topics covered.
Ingrid Young
DFID Health Resource Centre
Institute of Development Studies
at the University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE
Tel: +44-1273-678-688
mailto:i.young@ids.ac.uk
http://www.eldis.org/hivaids/
http://www.eldis.org/healthsystems/
http://www.eldis.org/health/