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Health

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Having an effective health system is essential to pro-poor development but it is a complex challenge. IDS research starts from the experience and innovations emerging from developing countries themselves rather than continuing to export models from the OECD countries.

Four key areas of research and policy

IDS research, information services and policy advisory activities on health and social change are organised around four key areas of research and policy concern:

1. The challenge of pluralistic health systems

In many developing countries, health services are increasingly being delivered by a range of service providers and actors. In this context, knowledge no longer resides only with 'experts'. In these settings, how can institutional arrangements for ensuring quality and affordability be developed and how can people access reliable health-related knowledge?

2. The changing role of government

How has the spread of markets and integration into the global economy affected the role of government in the health sector? What kinds of regulatory partnerships are emerging, who are the power brokers and what are the implications for policy processes?

3. Rights, entitlements and accountability

How can health systems be made more accountable to the people who use them and how can government commitments be translated into effective rights to safe and effective health services?

4. Health and social protection in a globalised world

Social protection strategies must take into account many health-related challenges. In particular, how do different types of illness affect different kinds of households and what can governments do to reduce the impoverishing impact of major illness?

News »»


Agricultural interventions to tackle malnutrition are not reaching the poorest and those most at risk to chronic hunger

Published: 2 Dec 2011 Pascaline Bampoky waters pepper plants in the garden she keeps outside her home in Bignona, Senegal. Image credit: Olivier Asselin / IFAD

The first issue of the 3ie-IDS brief Evidence Matters addresses the fundamental question of whether there is sufficient evidence to show that increased household income and better diets improve children’s nutritional status.


Improvements in the evidence base but where is the will to end AIDS?

Published: 30 Nov 2011 Cambodia. 29-year-old Poeun Pech, an HIV positive mother of two boys, holds her cocktail of ARVs at a hospital in Pourk District. Her husband left her when he discovered her status and she returned to live with and be looked after by her parents. She has to travel to the hospital for treatment and to receive a supply of ARVs and the travel costs are a prohibitive USD 5 per person.

Reflections on the advances and tragedies this year on the rocky path to becoming an AIDS-free generation.


The Big Question for Development, IDS Podcast November 2011

Published: 7 Nov 2011 Fruits and vegetables for sale at an open air market. Credit: Jacob Silberberg / Panos

November's Big Question for Development - malnutrition and policies in Peru.




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Health projects at IDS

  • ARCADE HSSR: African Regional Capacity Development for Health Systems and Services Research - (Ongoing)
  • ARCADE RSDH: Asian Regional Capacity Development for Research on Social Determinants of Health - (Ongoing)
  • Brazil Indigenous Health System - (Ongoing)
  • Childhood Vaccination in West Africa - (2002 - 2006)
  • Childhood Vaccination: Science and Public Engagement - (2002 - 2004)
  • China Health Development Forum - (Ongoing)
  • Ensuring Health Care for the Rural Poor: alternative approaches in China and Vietnam - (2003 - 2007)
  • Future Health Systems Research Programme Consortium - (Ongoing)
  • Home Grown School Feeding programme - A new initiative that will support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding programmes sourced from local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. (Ongoing)
  • Lessons Learnt on Scaling Up Child Sensitive Social Protection Within Eastern and Southern Africa Programmes - IDS has been commissioned to document experiences and lessons learned from various child sensitive social protection programmes UNICEF is supporting within the Children and AIDS Regional Initiative (CARI) (2010 - 2011)
  • Partnering for Better Food - This project aims to identify and support scalable public-private innovative partnerships in developing countries that bridge the gaps between agriculture and nutrition programmes to improve nutrition for the poor and undernourished. (Ongoing)
  • Partnership for Technical Assistance to Implementation of China Rural Health Project - Early this year the Chinese Government announced a major rural health reform policy, which includes a substantial increase in public funding and measures to improve the performance of the providers of health services. (Ongoing)
  • Potential of Mining PPPs to Strengthen Health Systems and Extend Health Services to Underserved Populations - (Ongoing)
  • Poverty Reduction Strategies: Approaches to Monitoring and Evaluation - (2004 - 2005)
  • Protecting the rural poor against the economic consequences of major illness - (Ongoing)
  • Realising Rights Research Programme Consortium - (Ongoing)
  • Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre - The STEPS Centre is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement hub, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to develop a new approach to understanding, action and communication on sustainability and development. (Ongoing)