13 October 2011
The Equity Watch in East and Southern Africa
Almost all countries in east and southern africa have policy commitments to promote health equity. In 2007, EQUINET, a network of professionals, civil society, state, parliament, and academics within the region that promotes health equity, analysed and reported on regional health equity. This report contributed to a 2010 east, central, and southern africa regional Health Ministers Meeting resolution to track and report on progress in addressing health inequities. In addition, the report was used in 2009, in consultation with institutions in the region, to develop a framework for gathering and analysing evidence on health equity at the national and regional levels. In an endeavour termed the “Equity Watch”, national teams — involving state and nonstate actors and working with EQUINET— organize, analyse, and accessibly present a range of existing quantitative and qualitative evidence to assess progress in addressing health inequities, to evaluate social determinants and health care, and to inform social dialogue on proposals for strengthening health equity. In addition to areas of importance for specific countries, 25 progress markers are included in all Equity Watch reports:
- five markers of advancing equity in health;
- seven markers of access to national resources and social determinants;
- eight markers of resourcing redistributive health systems;
- five markers of a more just return from the global economy.
The Regional Health Community Monitoring and Evaluation Expert Group provided input into the progress markers. At a national level, the pilot Equity Watch in Zimbabwe and the dialogue it prompted led to strengthened civil-society and parliamentary advocacy for primary health care. The Mozambique Equity Watch was discussed in 2010 to identify follow-up work that is now being pursued, including improvement of equity in resource allocation and follow-up research on social determinants and health inequities within districts. At a review meeting on the recently completed report from the Zambia Equity Watch in June 2011, stakeholders proposed that it be repeated annually in conjunction with monitoring of the implementation of the national Health strategic Plan and proposed to use it to inform action across key sectors involved in social determinants. The Kenya and Uganda Equity Watch reports are being finalized (with evidence from the Kenya report feeding into the new National Health Policy), and a second regional Equity Watch is being compiled to share evidence on progress, gaps, and promising practice, including for report-back on the Health Ministers resolution.
More information is available at http://www.equinetafrica.org.