Search

Begin New Search Topic Health Political Geography Africa

21. European Migrant Crisis: Health and Policy Implications

Author:
Adetayo Olorunlana
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Over 65 million people are displaced worldwide. Some have migrated to Europe, seeking refuge from wars, conflict and natural disasters. Migration and refugee health have significant repercussions for European governments and the European Union (EU), which were somewhat unprepared to address such issues. The EU proposed Health 2020 as immediate measures to address the health needs of refugees and migrants. The initiative was adopted to improve health for all, and to reduce health inequalities through public policy. However, there are legal restrictions barring irregular migrants from accessing these services. In addition, health service policies for irregular migrants varies in the EU region. There is inadequate response to some diseases affecting migrants from African origin. Consequently, refugee and migrant health is neglected, producing an inequitable situation and unnecessary suffering for the migrants, as well as potential risk to population in their host country.
Topic:
Health, Migration, Population, Public Health, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and European Union

22. Brain Drain in Africa: The Case of Tackling Capacity Issues in Malawi's Medical Migration

Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
Abstract:
In this strategic paper, the African Capacity Building Foundation shows how African countries can tackle the brain drain by understanding the emigration of medical personnel from Malawi, which in ways mirrors the wider African experience but is also unique. Like much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi has poor health indicators, reflecting its low capacity to deliver quality health care. This situation is due in part to the limited capacity for training physicians and in part to the massive emigration of health workers, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s. The paper's objectives are threefold. First is to understand the state and extent of the brain drain challenge in Africa with an appropriate country case study. Second is to map the strategies, approaches and initiatives countries undertake to address brain drain issues. Third is to identify lessons and good practices in addressing the key capacity needs, specifically defining the roles of state and non-state actors.
Topic:
Health, Migration, Brain Drain, Capacity, and Public Health
Political Geography:
Africa and Malawi

23. Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of Public Hospitals in Togo: A non-Parametric Approach

Author:
Esso-Hanam Atake
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
Abstract:
Most health facilities in Togo are poorly equipped. Consequently, the rate of post-natal consultation remains low and varies between 9.5% and 39.4%. Barely half of all deliveries (47.1%) take place in health facilities. In this study, we analysed technical efficiency scores of 139 Togolese public hospitals over the period 2008–2010, and then identified the determinants of this efficiency. Double bootstrap data envelopment analysis was used to draw consistent inferences. We first estimated bootstrapped efficiency scores. Then, bootstrapped truncated regression was used to identify the determinants of public hospitals efficiency. The results indicate that, on average, small-sized hospitals (periphery care units) investigated, had the highest efficiency scores. The University Teaching Hospitals and regional hospitals which have significant material, human and financial resources were associated with lower efficiency. The most significant and robust factors of technical efficiency are per capita income, competition, hospital’s balance, types of contract, and medical density. We found that income constraint and accessibility to health facilities are obstacles to efficiency. According to our results, we can infer that non-competitive public provision of health services is likely to be inefficient. Another important practical implication is that Togo must vigorously promote reform of the management system in public hospitals which regards corporate quality governance as the core. We hypothesize that if subsidies are allocated according to performance, they can positively affect efficiency. Policy makers should consider tying grant revenues to performance indicators.
Topic:
Education, Health, Health Care Policy, and Public Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and Togo

24. Peacebuilding through Health in Kenya’s Urban Informal Settlements: Insights for Policy

Author:
Roseanne Nijru
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
This briefing note is based on exploratory research in two informal settlements in Nairobi: Mathare and Kibera. It makes recommendations for engaging health workers in peacebuilding processes in urban informal settlements in Kenya. The recommendations are based on study conclusions showing that health care sys- tems, especially community-centered primary health care services and workers, have great potential to promote peace and security in Kenya. Violent conflicts constitute a public health challenge because of their adverse effects on health, social, and economic systems, which lead to declines in population well-being. Thus, peace and health are mutually reinforcing, and development cannot take place without good health. Despite this health-peace nexus, Kenya’s National Policy for Peacebuilding and Conflict Management (2015) and National Cohesion 1 and Integration Commission (NCIC, 2008) , both formulated in a volatile political climate, have not recognized the contribution of the health system to peace- building. In 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted “Health as a Bridge for Peace (HBP)” as a policy framework on the premise that the role of health care providers in promoting peace is significant for the attainment of “Health for All.”2 This study suggests that health care systems in Kenya can be part of the multifaceted peacebuilding effort in urban informal settlements that experience a range of violence—political, ethnic, extremist, resource-related, gender-based—and vicious cycles of retaliatory attacks.
Topic:
Health, Peacekeeping, Urban, and Community
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

25. Spotlight on Africa | Turkey–Africa Relations

Author:
Michael Asiedu
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Political Trends Center
Abstract:
On the 11th and 12th of February 2018, the “2nd Turkey–Africa Ministerial Review Conference” transpired in Istanbul. The Conference was held under the tutelage of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. In participation was the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, H. E. Thomas Qwesi Quartey together with several foreign affairs ministers of African countries as well as AU representatives. Considering that a Turkey–Africa Summit is scheduled to be held in 2019 in Turkey, this TurkeyAfrica Ministerial Review Conference was held to evaluate the progress of Turkey’s Africa partnership so far in conjunction with steps that could be taken to even solidify this special relationship.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Education, Health, International Affairs, Bilateral Relations, and Conference
Political Geography:
Africa, Turkey, and Middle East

26. The Security Sector’s Role in Responding to Health Crises: Lessons from the 2014–2015 Ebola Epidemic and Recommendations for the Mano River Union and Its Member States

Author:
Jonathan Sandy, Albrecht Schnabel, Haja Sovula, and Raphael Zumsteg
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This report is informed by the two-day roundtable-style workshop entitled "The Security Sector and Global Health Crises: Lessons from the 2014 Ebola Epidemic in West Africa" in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The workshop's main discussions, outcomes and recommendations are expected to facilitate better preparedness to mitigate future epidemics through collaborative and coordinated efforts between health and security sector communities, and directed at local, national and regional actors as well as the international donor community engaged in West Africa.
Topic:
Security, Health, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
Africa, Liberia, West Africa, Sierra Leone, and Guinea

27. Socio-cultural Factors Influencing the Ebola Virus Disease-related Stigma among African Immigrants in the United States

Author:
Guy-Lucien S. Whembolua, Donaldson Conserve, and Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
African immigrants, one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the United States (U.S.), face many unique challenges. Since December 2013, the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has been claiming lives and altering the societies of origin of West and Central African immigrants. Using the PEN-3 cultural model, a thematic analysis of mainstream U.S. news media was conducted to assess the socio-cultural factors influencing EVD-related stigma experienced by African immigrants. Results of this analysis revealed the perceptions and enabling/nurturing factors that exacerbated or prevented EVD-related stigma. Future interventions designed to address stigma experienced by African immigrants should include EVD-related stigma.
Topic:
Health, Migration, Infectious Diseases, and Ebola
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

28. Getting Sick in Africa

Author:
Bob Baker
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Malaria was like having a pain X-ray of all your bones, but after a fever bout, shaking chills diverted attention from your aching bones. I had taken all the anti-malaria pills but had evidently bumped into a new strain upcountry in Mali, West Africa. Catching bugs was also easy in Liberia, and Congo.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Health, Memoir, and Peace Corps
Political Geography:
Africa, Mali, and United States of America

29. Africa’s Great Hunger Handicap

Author:
Mark Wentling
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Africa’s hunger problem is a long standing one that has been exacerbated by a rapid population growth rate that has outstripped the continent’s ability to feed itself. A number of countries in Africa are now experiencing structural food deficits. The population of Africa currently stands at nearly 1.2 billion, twice what it was in 1985, and it is projected to double again by 2050, surpassing the populations of both China and India by 2023. At the current population growth rate, Africans will represent half the world’s population by 2035.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Health, and Hunger
Political Geography:
Africa and United States of America

30. Decentralized Local Health Services in Tanzania: Are Health Resources Reaching Primary Health Facilities, or Are They Getting Stuck at the District Level?

Author:
Jameson Boex, Luke Fuller, and Ammar A. Malik
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
This study analyzes local health finances in Tanzania by considering the extent to which public health resources in Tanzania flow from the district government level to primary health facilities, or whether these resources get stuck at the district level. Our analysis of health expenditures in six rural Local Government Authorities suggests that less than half of local health funding reaches the front-line dispensaries that provide the vast majority of local health services. The structure of the local health system appears to favor top-down interventions and control, rather than empowering local facilities to improve local health outcomes.
Topic:
Health, Health Care Policy, International Development, and Cities
Political Geography:
Africa and Tanzania