The Political Economy Of Universal Healthcare In Africa

The global rise in pandemics, most recently COVID-19, and other health challenges, some of which are due to climate change, have imposed significant challenges on the healthcare systems in economies around the world. Thus, this book deals with an issue that is very timely and relevant, not just in Africa but globally. It critically assesses healthcare reforms in Ghana under the Fourth Republic, since 1993. Although it focuses on Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme of 2003, the book instructively goes beyond this program. The book argues that, although Ghana is a bellwether of healthcare reforms in Africa, its healthcare initiatives are still far from the service haven of healthcare as a human right. Themes that animate the book’s argument include the need to translate human rights law, such as the right to health, into practical policies that work for ordinary citizens. Key highlights of the book include an increased accent on health as a human right, emphasis on comparative analysis in healthcare studies, and the formulation of a four-hallmark framework, embedded in economics, law, politics, and human rights, to act as a guide for assessment of healthcare reforms in Africa in particular, and Ghana more specifically. Using Ghana as a case study and analytical window into the world, the book offers a valuable and timely resource for academics, students and policymakers across the disciplines of development and healthcare economics, law, public policy, political science, sociology, and African and Caribbean studies, as well as in various fields in health science.

a Should be of interest to everyone working for a just and caring health system anywhere.a Barbara Ehrenreich"

A political economic history of the three and a half century rivalry between competing health care systems in Senegambia. The analysis focuses on the historical agency manifested in indigenous populations and its contemporary applications.

The issue of universal and free access to treatment is now a fundamental goal of the international community. Based on original data and field studies from Brazil, Thailand, India and Sub-Saharan Africa under the aegis of ANRS (the French nationalagency for research on Aids and viral hepatitis, this timely and significant book both assesses the progress made in achieving this objective and presents a rigorous diagnosis of the obstacles that remain. Placing particular emphasis on the constraints imposed by TRIPS as well as the poor state of most public health systems in Southern countries, the contributing authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the huge barriers that have yet to be overcome in order to attain free access to care and offer innovative suggestions of how they might be confronted. In doing this, the book renews our understanding of the political economy of HIV/AIDS in these vast regions, where the disease continues to spread with devastating social and economic consequences. This volume will be a valuable addition to the current literature on HIV/AIDS in developing countries and will find widespread appeal amongst students and academics studying economics, sociology and public health. It will also be of interest to international organizations and professional associations involved in the fight against pandemics.

Provides an international, unifying perspective, based on the 'public choice' tradition, to explain how patient-citizens interact with their country's political institutions to determine health policies and outcomes. This volume will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students studying health economics, health policy and public policy.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. This book is about medicines production in sub-Saharan Africa, an enquiry driven by the vast unmet health needs of the sub-continent. It is a collective endeavour by a group of editors and authors with a strong African and more broadly Southern presence to find ways forward that link technological development, investment and industrial growth in pharmaceuticals to improve access to essential good quality medicines, as part of moving towards universal access to competent health care. We aim to shift the emphasis in international debate to give much more attention to the scope for sustained Africa-based and African-led initiatives to tackle this huge challenge. Without the technological, industrial, intellectual, organisational and research-related capabilities associated with competent pharmaceutical production, and without policies that pull the industrial sectors towards serving local health needs, the African sub-continent cannot generate the resources to tackle the needs and demands of its population.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The importance of the pharmaceutical industry in Sub-Saharan Africa, its claim to policy priority, is rooted in the vast unmet health needs of the sub-continent. Making Medicines in Africa is a collective endeavour, by a group of contributors with a strong African and more broadly Southern presence, to find ways to link technological development, investment and industrial growth in pharmaceuticals to improve access to essential good quality medicines, as part of moving towards universal access to competent health care in Africa. The authors aim to shift the emphasis in international debate and initiatives towards sustained Africa-based and African-led initiatives to tackle this huge challenge. Without the technological, industrial, intellectual, organisational and research-related capabilities associated with competent pharmaceutical production, and without policies that pull the industrial sectors towards serving local health needs, the African sub-continent cannot generate the resources to tackle its populations' needs and demands. Research for this book has been selected as one of the 20 best examples of the impact of UK research on development. See http://www.ukcds.org.uk/the-global-impact-of-uk-research for further details.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The importance of the pharmaceutical industry in Sub-Saharan Africa, its claim to policy priority, is rooted in the vast unmet health needs of the sub-continent. Making Medicines in Africa is a collective endeavour, by a group of contributors with a strong African and more broadly Southern presence, to find ways to link technological development, investment and industrial growth in pharmaceuticals to improve access to essential good quality medicines, as part of moving towards universal access to competent health care in Africa. The authors aim to shift the emphasis in international debate and initiatives towards sustained Africa-based and African-led initiatives to tackle this huge challenge. Without the technological, industrial, intellectual, organisational and research-related capabilities associated with competent pharmaceutical production, and without policies that pull the industrial sectors towards serving local health needs, the African sub-continent cannot generate the resources to tackle its populations' needs and demands. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.