District-led quality improvement in priority setting for Universal Health Coverage
Otiso et al (2016) What role for district-led quality improvement approaches in priority setting for Universal Health Coverage: Learning from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, prepared for the Prince Mahidol Award Conference
We will not achieve universal health coverage without a well-chosen, trained and supported health care workforce. In the light of existing deficiencies in this area in low- and middle-income countries policy makers are suggesting various innovations. One promising area is the expansion of cadres of close-to-community provides. These providers do play an important interface role between communities and the formal health sector and are often well placed to understand and work upon the social determinants of health. However, rapid scale up of the type that is being proposed will fail to reach its full potential if issues of quality are not afforded the prominence that they deserve. Furthermore, policy change at the international and national level that does not engage and draw upon the knowledge of local actors – such as close-to-community providers - in the health system is less likely to succeed.
This project is funded by the European Union.