TY - JOUR
T1 - 10 best resources on power in health policy and systems in low- and middle-income countries
AU - Sriram, Veena
AU - Topp, Stephanie M.
AU - Schaaf, Marta
AU - Mishra, Arima
AU - Flores, Walter
AU - Rajasulochana, Subramania Raju
AU - Scott, Kerry
N1 - Funding Information:
VS is currently supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under grant award T32 HS000087 (PI: Jane Holl, MD, MPH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of AHRQ.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/5/1
Y1 - 2018/5/1
N2 - Power is a critical concept to understand and transform health policy and systems. Power manifests implicitly or explicitly at multiple levels - local, national and global - and is present at each actor interface, therefore shaping all actions, processes and outcomes. Analysing and engaging with power has important potential for improving our understanding of the underlying causes of inequity, and our ability to promote transparency, accountability and fairness. However, the study and analysis of the role of power in health policy and systems, particularly in the context of low- and middle-income countries, has been lacking. In order to facilitate greater engagement with the concept of power among researchers and practitioners in the health systems and policy realm, we share a broad overview of the concept of power, and list 10 excellent resources on power in health policy and systems in low- and middle-income countries, covering exemplary frameworks, commentaries and empirical work. We undertook a two-stage process to identify these resources. First, we conducted a collaborative exercise involving crowd sourcing and participatory validation, resulting in 24 proposed articles. Second, we conducted a structured literature review in four phases, resulting in 38 articles reviewed. We present the 10 selected resources in the following categories to bring out key facets of the literature on power and health policy and systems - (1) Resources that provide an overarching conceptual exploration into how power shapes health policy and systems, and how to investigate it; and (2) examples of strong empirical work on power and health policy and systems research representing various levels of analyses, geographic regions and conceptual understandings of power. We conclude with a brief discussion of key gaps in the literature, and suggestions for additional methodological approaches to study power.
AB - Power is a critical concept to understand and transform health policy and systems. Power manifests implicitly or explicitly at multiple levels - local, national and global - and is present at each actor interface, therefore shaping all actions, processes and outcomes. Analysing and engaging with power has important potential for improving our understanding of the underlying causes of inequity, and our ability to promote transparency, accountability and fairness. However, the study and analysis of the role of power in health policy and systems, particularly in the context of low- and middle-income countries, has been lacking. In order to facilitate greater engagement with the concept of power among researchers and practitioners in the health systems and policy realm, we share a broad overview of the concept of power, and list 10 excellent resources on power in health policy and systems in low- and middle-income countries, covering exemplary frameworks, commentaries and empirical work. We undertook a two-stage process to identify these resources. First, we conducted a collaborative exercise involving crowd sourcing and participatory validation, resulting in 24 proposed articles. Second, we conducted a structured literature review in four phases, resulting in 38 articles reviewed. We present the 10 selected resources in the following categories to bring out key facets of the literature on power and health policy and systems - (1) Resources that provide an overarching conceptual exploration into how power shapes health policy and systems, and how to investigate it; and (2) examples of strong empirical work on power and health policy and systems research representing various levels of analyses, geographic regions and conceptual understandings of power. We conclude with a brief discussion of key gaps in the literature, and suggestions for additional methodological approaches to study power.
KW - Power
KW - health systems
KW - low- and middle-income countries
KW - social sciences
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048607537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85048607537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/heapol/czy008
DO - 10.1093/heapol/czy008
M3 - Article
C2 - 29471544
AN - SCOPUS:85048607537
SN - 0268-1080
VL - 33
SP - 611
EP - 621
JO - Health policy and planning
JF - Health policy and planning
IS - 4
ER -