Sign onto the Call for GHSIAs

To sign onto this call, comment below with the following: Your name, affiliation, and location. If you have questions or comments, email ghsias@gmail.com. You can see the Lancet article here, or the body of the article here.

Call to Action

Those engaged in global health should hold governments and other affiliated organisations accountable for the effect of global health activities on existing health systems

WHO should:
• take the lead in development and dissemination of HSIAs that can be used by all groups associated with global health, and
• include prominent section for development and dissemination of HSIAs on their website

All donors, led by major donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank should:
• require that all global health initiatives and programmes that they fund take into account the effect on the existing health system, and
• fund activities to develop and implement effective evidence-based HSIAs

Government leaders and ministry of health personnel, particularly in developing countries, should assess and document effect of global health initiatives and programmes on their existing health system, irrespective of who funds the programme

Academic institutions and researchers should prioritise research for development of HSIAs that are evidence-based and take into account local realities

Non-governmental organisations and staff who participate in humanitarian work should:
• participate in development of and sign onto codes of conduct, such as the NGO Code of Conduct
• take into account effect of their programmes on existing health system, and
• work with academic and other institutions to develop HSIAs that are appropriate to their specific situation

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the Health Systems Action Network, the Countdown Working Group on Health Policy and Health Systems, the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and others involved in health systems advocacy and research should:
• support development of HSIAs and indicators that are evidence-based, easy to use, and appropriate to the implementing organisation’s capacity and situation
• Collaborate to establish a website where methods and expertise in the conduct of HSIAs are displayed

Signed:

R. Chad Swanson, DO, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD, USA

Henry Mosley, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD, USA

David Sanders, MBChB, University of Western Cape
Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa

David Egilman, MD, MPH, Brown University
Providence, RI, USA

Jan De Maeseneer, MD, PhD, Ghent University
Ghent, Belgium

Mushtaque Chowdhury, PhD, BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Claudio F. Lanata, MD, MPH, Nutritional Research Institute
Lima, Peru

Kirk Dearden, PhD, Boston University
Boston, MA, USA

Malcolm Bryant, MBBS., MPH, Innovative Development Expertise and Advisory Services, Inc
Boston, MA, USA