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
27 Comments
July 3, 2009 at 8:56 pm
[...] Sign onto the Call for GHSIAs [...]
August 13, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I fully support this initiative. we need to redefine health systems strengthening within the context of emerging financing and delivery of health services.
July 3, 2009 at 9:31 pm
[...] 1. The call to action for Health Systems Impact Assessments was published today in the Lancet. -Consider Signing onto the call here. [...]
July 3, 2009 at 9:53 pm
“A stitch in time”
July 3, 2009 at 11:09 pm
University of California San Diego
San Diego, California
July 4, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I support this very relevant initiative. SAKHO
July 5, 2009 at 3:51 pm
The Mali Health Organizing Project strongly supports this call.
July 8, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Innovative Development Expertise & Advisory Services, Inc (IDEAS)
16 Depot Road
Boxford, MA 01921
With rare exceptions, experience demonstrates that the gains of vertical programs will only be sustained, if health systems are strengthened to routinely provide the required services.
July 21, 2009 at 8:32 pm
[...] Sign onto the Call for GHSIAs [...]
August 5, 2009 at 2:46 am
I strongly support this call to action.
Innovative Development Expertise & Advisory Services, Inc (IDEAS)
August 7, 2009 at 10:29 pm
thank yioun for including my name in your mailing list
August 11, 2009 at 1:19 pm
WHO Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Health, Trieste, Italy
We fully support this call.
August 12, 2009 at 9:21 am
I totally agree with your call. It will be crucial to reach an agreement asap on a common assessment framework. This should adopt a modular approach (i.e. by levels of complexity building on the same framework) to allow for the great variety of project/programmes, including the availability of funds for the assessment. I also suggest to use the WHO HS framework (identifying 6 system functions), as it already widely used.
August 12, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I am working as Health System Strengthening project coordinator. I totally support the call.
August 12, 2009 at 2:34 pm
We support your call also as Osservatorio Italiano sulla Salute Globale (Italian Global Health Watch), see http://www.saluteglobale.it/ (only in Italian, unfortunately). I am the current president of this association.
August 13, 2009 at 6:23 am
I support this timely initiative given the levels of funding now going into health systems strengthening
August 13, 2009 at 7:02 am
I would like to add my support to this timely initiative given the increased funding mainly from Global Health Initiatives that is now going into supporting health systems strengthening in developing countries.
August 15, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I agree completely with this need for a Call to Action
August 23, 2009 at 10:47 am
Thank you all on this issue of global concern. I am a specialist in Health Policy, Planning and Management (HPPM) and would want to contribute specifically on innovative financial mechanisms that will foster the public-private partnership in health services delivery using the government tools. Alternatively is on Human resources for health in community based programs using the VHT or CHW, an area i have researched and done some work on.
August 23, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I agree with the Call to Action. I believe that a health system is the most important integral part of a nation’s development and determines how much the people are healthy and happy. The horizons of a health system are very broad and its time to think Health in all Policies!
Amit Samarth, MBBS, MHA
MPH Student at JHSPH
August 23, 2009 at 2:33 pm
A very welcomed development which I hope will
yield the desired outcome.
August 23, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I work in Kenya and I totally agree with this call to action.Our health systems need to be defined and then strengtthened accordingly
August 24, 2009 at 11:39 am
The initiative is timely. The Department of Public Health, Univ. of The Gambia is willing to collaborate with colleagues and partners in this endeavour.
August 24, 2009 at 11:41 am
A timely initiative. The Dept. of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of The Gambia is willing to collaborate with colleagues in this endeavour.
September 22, 2009 at 1:59 am
This is a wonderful initative
I would like to join it too
S.K. CHATURVEDI
September 22, 2009 at 2:08 am
This is wonderful !
Please add my name also .
November 4, 2009 at 2:53 pm
This is a movement to believe in. Thanks for all involved!