scholarly journals Institutional Analysis on Public-Private Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Healthcare Systems and Policy Implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-96
Author(s):  
Aladino José Manhiça

Many people in developing countries are exposed to a greater risk to access essential healthcare services. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank estimate that more than half of the world’s 7.3 billion people do not obtain all of the essential needed healthcare services. To minimize this burden, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have embraced the private sector through public-private partnership (PPP) as a mean to achieve Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC). A number of publications have raised the importance of institutional setting for effectiveness of the PPP in the region. However, very few have outstretched persuasive requirements to examine the effectiveness of PPP considering SSA’s socio-economic context. This paper examines the applicable environment for PPP in healthcare systems in SSA and has observed a trend of decrease in resources allocated by developing countries to healthcare services; increasing participation of private sector in healthcare delivery; the effectiveness of PPP is determined, but not limited to, by the quality of institutions and additional variables such as cultural characteristics, community attributes, and physical or material conditions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (Special) ◽  

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is the entity regulating the healthcare sector in the Emirate of Dubai, ensuring high quality and safe healthcare services delivery to the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, indicating to the world that further infection spread is very likely, and alerting countries that they should be ready for possible widespread community transmission. The first case of COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates was confirmed on 29th of January 2020; since then, the number of cases has continued to grow exponentially. As of 8th of July 2020 (end of the day), 53,045 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed with a death toll of 327 cases. The UAE has conducted over 3,720,000 COVID-19 tests among UAE citizens and residents over the past four months, in line with the government’s plans to strengthen virus screening to contain the spread of COVID-19. There were vital UAE policies, laws, regulations, and decrees that have been announced for immediate implementation to limit the spread of COVID- 19, to prevent panic and to ensure the overall food, nutrition, and well-being are provided. The UAE is amongst the World’s Top 10 for COVID-19 Treatment Efficiency and in the World’s Top 20 for the implementation of COVID-19 Safety measures. The UAE’s mission is to work towards resuming life after COVID-19 and enter into the recovery phases. This policy research paper will discuss the Dubai Health Authority’s rapid response initiatives towards combating the control and spread of COVID-19 and future policy implications and recommendations. The underlying factors and policy options will be discussed in terms of governance, finance, and delivery.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is the entity regulating the healthcare sector in the Emirate of Dubai, ensuring high quality and safe healthcare services delivery to the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, indicating to the world that further infection spread is very likely, and alerting countries that they should be ready for possible widespread community transmission. The first case of COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates was confirmed on 29th of January 2020; since then, the number of cases has continued to grow exponentially. As of 8th of July 2020 (end of the day), 53,045 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed with a death toll of 327 cases. The UAE has conducted over 3,720,000 COVID-19 tests among UAE citizens and residents over the past four months, in line with the government’s plans to strengthen virus screening to contain the spread of COVID-19. There were vital UAE policies, laws, regulations, and decrees that have been announced for immediate implementation to limit the spread of COVID- 19, to prevent panic and to ensure the overall food, nutrition, and well-being are provided. The UAE is amongst the World’s Top 10 for COVID-19 Treatment Efficiency and in the World’s Top 20 for the implementation of COVID-19 Safety measures. The UAE’s mission is to work towards resuming life after COVID-19 and enter into the recovery phases. This policy research paper will discuss the Dubai Health Authority’s rapid response initiatives towards combating the control and spread of COVID-19 and future policy implications and recommendations. The underlying factors and policy options will be discussed in terms of governance, finance, and delivery.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kush K. Maheshwari ◽  
Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect a huge population of the world and majority of the victims belong to the poor community of the developing countries. Until now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 20 tropical diseases as NTDs that must be addressed with high priority. However, many heterocyclic scaffolds have demonstrated potent therapeutic activity against several NTDs. Objective: There are three major objectives: (1) To discuss the causes, symptoms, and current status of all the 20 NTDs; (2) To explore the available heterocyclic drugs, and their mechanism of actions (if known) that are being used to treat NTDs; (3) To develop general awareness on NTDs among the medicinal/health research community and beyond. Methods: The 20 NTDs have been discussed according to their alphabetic orders along with the possible heterocyclic remedies. Current status of treatment with an emphasis on the heterocyclic drugs (commercially available and investigational) has been outlined. In addition, brief discussion of the impacts of NTDs on socio-economic condition is included. Results: NTDs are often difficult to diagnose and the problem is worsened by the unhealthy hygiene, improper awareness, and inadequate healthcare in the developing countries where these diseases primarily affect poor people. The statistics include duration of suffering, numbers affected, and access to healthcare and medication. The mechanism of actions of various heterocyclic drugs, if reported, have been briefly summarized. Conclusion: Scientists and pharmaceutical corporations should allocate more resources to reveal the in-depth mechanism of actions of many heterocyclic drugs that are currently being used for the treatment of NTDs. Analysis of current heterocyclic compounds and development of new medications can help in the fight to reduce/remove the devastating effects of NTDs. An opinion-based concise review has been presented. Based on available literature, this is the first effect to present all the 20 NTDs and related heterocyclic compounds under the same umbrella.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Théophile Vitoussia ◽  
Alain Brillard ◽  
Justin Bertsch ◽  
Olivier Allgaier ◽  
Gontrand Leyssens ◽  
...  

AbstractIn Sub-Saharan countries, cooking is usually done at a domestic scale using rudimentary stoves with wood or charcoal as combustibles. To improve the cooking behavior and reduce the deforestation, an improved pellet cookstove was conceptualized with guiding ideas in mind such as simplicity, robustness and ability to burn pellets built with local wood residues under a natural draught. Combustion and water ebullition tests were performed with two configurations of the upper part of the cookstove: thick steel plate or ring, and with standardized EN+ pellets as combustible. The main pollutant gases (CO, CO2 and NOx), together with O2, were continuously measured at different positions of the cookstove during a water ebullition test with the ring configuration. The levels measured above the pot were lower than the thresholds currently proposed by the World Health Organization. Simple and phenomenological thermal models were proposed to simulate the plate, or ring, and water temperatures during the combustion or water ebullition tests and to determine the intrinsic convection coefficients. The maximal relative differences between the experimental and simulated temperatures were computed between 7 and 21%. The stove power was evaluated at 4336 ± 23 W. The cookstove yield for the water ebullition test with the ring configuration was computed equal to 12.3 ± 0.1%, slightly lower than that of cookstoves previously analyzed in the literature.


Author(s):  
Eddy Gilissen ◽  
◽  
Chris Mulligan ◽  
Simon Tottman ◽  
Per Troein ◽  
...  

Healthcare systems across the world are looking at ways of maintaining the continuity of supply of medicines to patients in times of crisis.Whilst this is not a new phenomenon, the additional burden placed on the supply chain during COVID-19 has meant it has come more into the spotlight. The need to use a stockpile can be caused by an interruption to supply, a rapid and unexpected peak in demand, or when both an interruption to supply and a peak in demand occur simultaneously. The objectives of a stockpile will guide the portfolio breadth and depth to be held. Stockpile objectives are broadly driven either by government requirements to protect public health or by organisations seeking toachieve commercial gain. These drivers are not mutually exclusive as in the case of holding safety stock and Public Service Obligation stock. An Emergency Stockpile is Public Health driven and held in order to supply essential medicines during a signifcant or catastrophic event. Emergency stockpiles can be split into three categories — preparation for imminent event, disease specifc response and general contingency stockpiles. Governments and authorities determine which products and volumes should be held in an emergency stockpile which may be guided by the World Health Organizations (WHO) l ist of essential medicines.


Author(s):  
Ayu Kurniati ◽  
Enny Fitriahadi

IN 2013, the World Health Organization, released data in the form of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) worldwide, and the number reached 289,000 per 100, 000 live births, which 99% of cases occurred in developing countries. Research aims to discover the relationship of antenatal class towards mothers’ knowledge of the dangerous sign during pregnancy. The result showed that there is a relationship of antenatal class towards mothers’ knowledge of dangerous sign during pregnancy, From this result, the researcher concludes that antenatal class could increase mothers’ knowledge of dangerous sign during pregnancy and may decrease the complication risk during the childbirth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Kwabena Ameyaw

Abstract Background Malaria in pregnancy is a crucial public health concern due to the enormous risk it poses to maternal and newborn health. The World Health Organisation therefore recommends insecticide-treated net (ITN) for pregnant women. The world over, sub-Saharan Africa bears the highest prevalence of malaria and its associated complications. This study investigated the individual, community and society level factors associated with ITN use among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods The study was conducted with Demographic and Health Survey data of 21 sub-Saharan African countries. A total of 17,731 pregnant women who possessed ITN participated in the study. Descriptive computation of ITN use by survey country and socio-demographic characteristics was conducted. Further, five multi-level binary logistic regression models were fitted with MLwiN 3.05 package in STATA. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation procedure was used in estimating the parameters whilst the Bayesian Deviance Information Criterion was used for the model fitness test. Results On average, 74.2% pregnant women in SSA used ITN. The highest prevalence of ITN use occurred in Mali (83.7%) whilst the least usage occurred in Namibia (7%). Women aged 30–34 were more likely to use ITN compared with those aged 45–49 [aOR = 1.14; Crl = 1.07–1.50]. Poorest women were less probable to use ITN relative to richest women [aOR = 0.79; Crl = 0.70–0.89]. Compared to women who did not want their pregnancies at all, women who wanted their pregnancies [aOR = 1.06; Crl = 1.04–1.19] were more probable to use ITN. Women in male-headed households had higher likelihood of ITN use compared to those from female-headed households [aOR = 1.28; Crl = 1.19–1.39]. On the whole, 38.1% variation in ITN use was attributable to societal level factors whilst 20.9% variation was attributable to community level factors. Conclusion The study has revealed that in addition to individual level factors, community and society level factors affect ITN use in SSA. In as much as the study points towards the need to incorporate community and societal variations in ITN interventions, active involvement of men can yield better outcome for ITN utilisation interventions in SSA.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan David Baral ◽  
Katherine Blair Rucinski ◽  
Jean Olivier Twahirwa Rwema ◽  
Amrita Rao ◽  
Neia Prata Menezes ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND SARS-CoV-2 and influenza are lipid-enveloped viruses with differential morbidity and mortality but shared modes of transmission. OBJECTIVE With a descriptive epidemiological framing, we assessed whether recent historical patterns of regional influenza burden are reflected in the observed heterogeneity in COVID-19 cases across regions of the world. METHODS Weekly surveillance data reported by the World Health Organization from January 2017 to December 2019 for influenza and from January 1, 2020 through October 31, 2020, for COVID-19 were used to assess seasonal and temporal trends for influenza and COVID-19 cases across the seven World Bank regions. RESULTS In regions with more pronounced influenza seasonality, COVID-19 epidemics have largely followed trends similar to those seen for influenza from 2017 to 2019. COVID-19 epidemics in countries across Europe, Central Asia, and North America have been marked by a first peak during the spring, followed by significant reductions in COVID-19 cases in the summer months and a second wave in the fall. In Latin America and the Caribbean, COVID-19 epidemics in several countries peaked in the summer, corresponding to months with the highest influenza activity in the region. Countries from regions with less pronounced influenza activity, including South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, showed more heterogeneity in COVID-19 epidemics seen to date. However, similarities in COVID-19 and influenza trends were evident within select countries irrespective of region. CONCLUSIONS Ecological consistency in COVID-19 trends seen to date with influenza trends suggests the potential for shared individual, structural, and environmental determinants of transmission. Using a descriptive epidemiological framework to assess shared regional trends for rapidly emerging respiratory pathogens with better studied respiratory infections may provide further insights into the differential impacts of nonpharmacologic interventions and intersections with environmental conditions. Ultimately, forecasting trends and informing interventions for novel respiratory pathogens like COVID-19 should leverage epidemiologic patterns in the relative burden of past respiratory pathogens as prior information.


Author(s):  
Nuray Cakirli ◽  
Aytug Sozuer

The global waste market is estimated at US$410 billion a year and growing, while only 25 per cent of total waste is known as recovered and recycled. Besides, this figure does not include the informal segment in which around 20 million people work as waste pickers in developing countries. Solid waste management policy and recycling practices differ among certain parts of the world to a large extent. Industrialized countries generally have formal and automated waste management systems, whereas developing countries rely on the informal sector. In Istanbul, which is one of the few megacities in the world appear to be at the crossroad of a policy choice. Authorities will either privatize the recycling business for large firms or try to follow more inclusive approach for more than 100,000 waste pickers in the city. Based on the literature, this study will review the formal waste management systems and describe the integration of informal recycling sector in particular world regions that may have policy implications for Istanbul.


Author(s):  
Fikreyohannes Lemma ◽  
Mieso K. Denko ◽  
Joseph K. Tan ◽  
Samuel Kinde Kassegne

Poor infrastructures in developing countries such as Ethiopia and much of Sub-Saharan Africa have caused these nations to suffer from lack of efficient and effective delivery of basic and extended medical and healthcare services. Often, such limitation is further accompanied by low patient-doctor ratios, resulting in unwarranted rationing of services. Apparently, e-medicine awareness among both governmental policy makers and private health professionals is motivating the gradual adoption of technological innovations in these countries. It is argued, however, that there still is a gap between current e-medicine efforts in developing countries and the existing connectivity infrastructure leading to faulty, inefficient and expensive designs. The particular case of Ethiopia, one such developing country where e-medicine continues to carry significant promises, is investigated and reported in this article.


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