Regional Integration, Health Policy and Global Health

Nikogosian, Haik

doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12835

Cited by 10 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Our decision to include it as the only non-member state based regional organisation in the study was justified by its relevance at the time of study as a regional science funding platform mandated by NEPAD for this purpose in 2015. We judged this decision acceptable given consensus among partners and expert networks about the unique position of AAS with its mandate expanded in collaboration with an AU agency to accelerate and fund excellence in African science, including HSciR [1] . For each regional organisation, AH collected the following data from their websites: relevant sub-organisations, headquarters location, official mandate for regional cooperation, geographic sub-region of the organisation's mandate (according to the AU's five regions), member states, description of the organisation's role in supporting HSciR, and links to HSciR specific activity (eg, a programme, project, policy).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Endnotes [1] Since the time this research was conducted and data analysed in April 2021, with the paper submitted in May 2021, the AAS is no longer serving in this capacity as host and implementer of a financing platform due to an internal governance crisis. 48 The Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa initiative has been re-established as the African Science Foundation in December 2021, temporarily hosted by Price Waterhouse Cooper in Kenya.…”

Section: Ethical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives

Jones

Sobngwi-Tambekou²,

Mijumbi-Deve

et al. 2022

Int J Health Policy Manag

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Background: Regional cooperation on health in Africa is not new. The institutional landscape of regional cooperation for health and health research, however, has seen important changes. Recent health emergencies have focussed regional bodies’ attention on supporting aspects of national health preparedness and response. The state of national health research systems is a key element of capacity to plan and respond to health needs – raising questions about the roles African regional bodies can or should play in strengthening health research systems. Methods: We mapped regional organisations involved in health research across Africa and conducted 18 interviews with informants from 15 regional organisations. We investigated the roles, challenges, and opportunities of these bodies in strengthening health research. We deductively coded interview data using themes from established pillars of health research systems – governance, creating resources, research production and use, and financing. We analysed organisations’ relevant activities in these areas, how they do this work, and where they perceive impact. Results: Regional organisations with technical foci on health or higher education (versus economic or political remits) were involved in all four areas. Most organisations reported activities in governance and research use. Involvement in governance centred mainly around agenda-setting and policy harmonisation. For organisations involved in creating resources, activities focused on strengthening human resources, but few reported developing research institutions, networks, or infrastructure. Organisations reported more involvement in disseminating than producing research. Generally, few have directly contributed to financing health research. They report gaps in research coordination, infrastructure, and advocacy at regional level. Finally, we found regional bodies’ mandates, authority, and collaborations influence their activities in supporting national health research systems. Conclusion: Continued strengthening of health research on the African continent requires strategic thinking about the roles, comparative advantages, and capability of regional organisations to facilitate capacity and growth of health research systems.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives

Jones

Sobngwi-Tambekou²,

Mijumbi-Deve

et al. 2022

Int J Health Policy Manag

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“…Regional organisations are increasingly involved in health policy matters within their broader sectoral integration mandates, [1] including in Africa [2,3]. Public health emergencies such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak and current COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the unique roles that regional organisations in Africa can play in coordination, resource pooling, or scientific leadership when they have institutional capacity for these [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping regional cooperation of state actors for health research systems in Africa: A social network analysis

Hedquist

Jones²,

Mijumbi-Deve³

et al. 2022

PLOS Glob Public Health

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Regional bodies can potentially play an important role in improving health research in Africa. This study analyses the network of African state-based regional organisations for health research and assesses their potential relationship with national health research performance metrics. After cataloguing organisations and their membership, we conducted a social network analysis to determine key network attributes of national governments’ connections via regional organisations supporting functions of health research systems. This data was used to test the hypothesis that state actors with more connections to other actors via regional organisations would have higher levels of health research performance across indicators. With 21 unique regional organisations, the African continent is densely networked around health research systems issues. In general, the regional network for health research is inclusive. No single actor serves as a nexus. However, when statistics are grouped by African Union regions, influential poles emerge, with the most predominate spheres of influence in Eastern and Western Africa. Further, when connectivity data was analysed against national health research performance, there were no statistically significant relationships between increased connectivity and higher performance of key health research metrics. The inclusive and dense network dynamics of African regional organisations for health research strengthening present key opportunities for knowledge diffusion and cooperation to improve research capacity on the continent. Further reflection is needed on appropriate and meaningful ways to assess the role of regionalism and evaluate the influence of regional organisations in strengthening health research systems in Africa.

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“…Such social policy commitments have 'thickened' over time and considerably vary in the forms they take worldwide (Bianculli and Hoffman, 2016;Deacon et al, 2010;Nikogosian, 2020;Robertson et al, 2016;Söderbaum, 2016;Van Der Vleuten, 2016;Yeates, 2007Yeates, , 2014cYeates, , 2019. Northern world-regionalisms, notably the European Union (EU), have attracted the lion's share of research, but there is increasing interest in and research on Southern social regionalisms (Berrón et al, 2013;Bianculli, 2018;Deacon et al, 2010;Nikogosian, 2020;Olivet and Brennan, 2010;Söderbaum, 2007;Yeates, 2014aYeates, , 2017Yeates and Deacon, 2010;Yeates and Rigirrozzi, 2015). The Sustainable Development Goals' (SDGs) inclusion of regionalisation processes, regionalist strategies and regional actors has been a source of renewed interest in the potential of more 'muscular' forms of world-regional social policy and other sorts of international partnerships supportive of health and social welfare on a regional scale (Yeates, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nascent world-regional social policies are evidenced in common regulatory frameworks, promoting (or instituting) social/human rights and undertaking programmes of redistribution across a range of social sectors. Such social policy commitments have ‘thickened’ over time and considerably vary in the forms they take worldwide (Bianculli and Hoffman, 2016; Deacon et al, 2010; Nikogosian, 2020; Robertson et al, 2016; Söderbaum, 2016; Van Der Vleuten, 2016; Yeates, 2007, 2014c, 2019). Northern world-regionalisms, notably the European Union (EU), have attracted the lion’s share of research, but there is increasing interest in and research on Southern social regionalisms (Berrón et al, 2013; Bianculli, 2018; Deacon et al, 2010; Nikogosian, 2020; Olivet and Brennan, 2010; Söderbaum, 2007; Yeates, 2014a, 2017; Yeates and Deacon, 2010; Yeates and Rigirrozzi, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern social world-regionalisms: The place of health in nine African regional economic communities

Yeates

Surender

2020

Global Social Policy

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This article presents key results from a comparative qualitative Social Policy study of nine African regional economic communities’ (RECs) regional health policies. The article asks to what extent has health been incorporated into RECs’ public policy functions and actions, and what similarities and differences are evident among the RECs. Utilising a World Health Organization (WHO) framework for conceptualising health systems, the research evidence routes the article’s arguments towards the following principal conclusions. First, the health sector is a key component of the public policy functions of most of the RECs. In these RECs, innovations in health sector organisation are notable; there is considerable regulatory, organisational, resourcing and programmatic diversity among the RECs alongside under-resourcing and fragmentation within each of them. Second, there are indications of important tangible benefits of regional cooperation and coordination in health, and growing interest by international donors in regional mechanisms through which to disburse health and -related Official Development Assistance (ODA). Third, content analysis of RECs’ regional health strategies suggests fairly minimal strategic ambitions as well as significant limitations of current approaches to advancing effective and progressive health reform. The lack of emphasis on universal health care and reliance on piecemeal donor funding are out of step with approaches and recommendations increasingly emphasising health systems development, sector-wide approaches (SWAPs) and primary health care as the bedrock of health services expansion. Overall, the health component of RECs’ development priorities is consistent with an instrumentalist social policy approach. The development of a more comprehensive sustainable world-regional health policy is unlikely to come from the African Continental Free-Trade Area, which lacks requisite social and health clauses to underpin ‘positive’ forms of regional integration.

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Regional Integration, Health Policy and Global Health

Cited by 10 publications

References 23 publications

The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives

The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives

Mapping regional cooperation of state actors for health research systems in Africa: A social network analysis

Southern social world-regionalisms: The place of health in nine African regional economic communities

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