TY - JOUR
T1 - Governing multisectoral action for health in low-income and middleincome countries
T2 - Unpacking the problem and rising to the challenge
AU - Bennett, Sara
AU - Glandon, Douglas
AU - Rasanathan, Kumanan
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We acknowledge Robert Beschel, Gabriel Carrasquilla, Jodi Charles, Rajib Dasgupta, Kirk Emerson, Douglas Glandon, Churnrurtai Kanchanachitra, Pete Kingsley, Don Matheson, Rees Murithi Mbabu, Michael Myers, Jeremias Paul Jr, Thulisile Radebe, James Smith, Orielle Solar, Aloysius Ssennyonjo, Matthias Wismar and Shehla Zaidi, who contributed to the Bellagio Center meeting on Governing Multisectoral Action for Health in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries in June 2016 and shared experiences that informed this paper from Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Uganda, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the European region. We also acknowledge the support of The Rockefeller Foundation in the convening of the Bellagio meeting and in funding this supplement.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 BMJ Global Health. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - Multisectoral action is key to addressing many pressing global health challenges and critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, but to-date, understanding about how best to promote and support multisectoral action for health is relatively limited. The challenges to multisectoral action may be more acute in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) where institutions are frequently weak, and fragmentation, even within the health sector, can undermine coordination. We apply the lens of governance to understand challenges to multisectoral action. This paper (1) provides a high level overview of possible disciplines, frameworks and theories that could be applied to enrich analyses in this field; (2) summarises the literature that has sought to describe governance of multisectoral action for health in LMICs using a simple political economy framework that identifies interests, institutions and ideas and (3) introduces the papers in the supplement. Our review highlights the diverse, but often political nature of factors influencing the success of multisectoral action. Key factors include the importance of high level political commitment; the incentives for competition versus collaboration between bureaucratic agencies and the extent to which there is common understanding across actors about the problem. The supplement papers seek to promote debate and understanding about research and practice approaches to the governance of multisectoral action and illustrate salient issues through case studies. The papers here are unable to cover all aspects of this topic, but in the final two papers, we seek to develop an agenda for future action. This paper introduces a supplement on the governance of multisectoral action for health. While many case studies exist in this domain, we identify a need for greater theory-based conceptualisation of multisectoral action and more sophisticated empirical investigation of such collaborations.
AB - Multisectoral action is key to addressing many pressing global health challenges and critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, but to-date, understanding about how best to promote and support multisectoral action for health is relatively limited. The challenges to multisectoral action may be more acute in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) where institutions are frequently weak, and fragmentation, even within the health sector, can undermine coordination. We apply the lens of governance to understand challenges to multisectoral action. This paper (1) provides a high level overview of possible disciplines, frameworks and theories that could be applied to enrich analyses in this field; (2) summarises the literature that has sought to describe governance of multisectoral action for health in LMICs using a simple political economy framework that identifies interests, institutions and ideas and (3) introduces the papers in the supplement. Our review highlights the diverse, but often political nature of factors influencing the success of multisectoral action. Key factors include the importance of high level political commitment; the incentives for competition versus collaboration between bureaucratic agencies and the extent to which there is common understanding across actors about the problem. The supplement papers seek to promote debate and understanding about research and practice approaches to the governance of multisectoral action and illustrate salient issues through case studies. The papers here are unable to cover all aspects of this topic, but in the final two papers, we seek to develop an agenda for future action. This paper introduces a supplement on the governance of multisectoral action for health. While many case studies exist in this domain, we identify a need for greater theory-based conceptualisation of multisectoral action and more sophisticated empirical investigation of such collaborations.
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U2 - 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000880
DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000880
M3 - Article
C2 - 30364411
AN - SCOPUS:85061833470
SN - 2059-7908
VL - 3
JO - BMJ Global Health
JF - BMJ Global Health
M1 - e000880
ER -