Access to medicines
Access to medicines
According to the World Bank, fragility, conflict, and violence is a critical development challenge that threatens efforts to end extreme poverty, affecting both low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many of the world’s crises are caused by or exacerbated by fragility, from violent conflict to internal and external displacements and climate shocks. Compared to other LMICs, fragile… Read more
The ability of countries to provide available, affordable, and high quality healthcare services to their populations has become a global priority. However, at least half of the population around the world still don’t have access to essential healthcare, and around 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty because they have to pay for healthcare. Universal… Read more
Vimal Kumar, principal consultant in the Oxford Policy Management Health team, discusses the importance of procurement and supply chain management in supporting effective policy reforms. Ensuring availability, affordability, and quality of commodities (for example medicines) to provide services to the patients is one of the key outcomes which procurement and supply chain management establishes. This… Read more
There is lack of published data on the costs of blood and blood transfusion in sub-Saharan Africa (Mafirakureva et al., 2016). Experts consulted for this rapid review confirm that the deficiency in the breakdown of components involved in costs hinders fair comparative analysis with different countries. Although the focus for this rapid review is on… Read more
This report focuses on the evidence on the health, economic and other benefits of investing in family planning. Family planning allows people to attain their desired number of children and determine the spacing of pregnancies. It is achieved through use of contraceptive methods and the treatment of infertility (WHO 2015). A large and growing body… Read more
People with disabilities have been found to ‘form one of the most socially excluded groups in any displaced or conflict-affected community’ (Pearce et al, 2016: 119). They may have difficulty accessing humanitarian assistance programmes, due to a variety of societal, attitudinal, environmental and communication barriers, and are at greater risk of violence than their non-disabled… Read more
This report provides a review of key literature and evidence on the LLINs and private sector. The evidence base for this report is vast and spans more than twenty years of research evidence, policy documents and implementation programme evaluations and data from sub Saharan Africa and Asia. The relevant literature spans academic publications in biological… Read more
Improving the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and responsiveness of supply chains and procurement processes for pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other health products, which make up a large share of total health expenditure in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), has important implications for health system performance and population health. Decentralised governance of health services provides greater autonomy in… Read more
Dr Helen Elsey is from the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, University of Leeds. In this HEART Talks she talks through the urban health HEART reading packs that she has put together with Dr Siddharth Agarwal from the Urban Health Resource Centre in India. The three reading packs are: A) Data and evidence,… Read more
In pharmaceutical management, distribution schemes for medicines can be defined as “push” or “pull” systems. In a pull system, each level of the system determines the types and quantities of medicines needed and place orders with the supply source. In a push system, supply sources determine the types and quantities of medicines to be delivered… Read more
This topic guide summarises some of the most rigorous available evidence on the key debates and challenges of disability inclusion in development and humanitarian response. Disability does not necessary imply limited wellbeing and poverty. Yet there is growing evidence that the estimated one billion people with disabilities face attitudinal, physical and institutional barriers that result in… Read more