Holding a country countdown to 2015 conference on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the Zambian experience

Mukonka, Victor; Malumo, Sarai; Kalesha, Penelope; Nambao, Mary; Mwale, Rodgers; Mwinga, Kasonde; Katepa-Bwalya, Mary; Babaniyi, Olusegan; Mason, Elizabeth; Phiri, Caroline; Wamulume, Pauline K.

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-60

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…When asked how government health care priorities had changed over recent decades, all participants (health care workers, district administrators and senior managers) emphasised increased attention to maternal health. Further indicators of prioritisation include the Ministry of Health institutionalising MDG Target 5.2 as its own Performance Assessment Indicator; ‘a national programme to strengthen Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (launched in 2007); a National Reproductive Health Policy (Ministry of Health, 2008); Maternal Death Reviews in all districts (2009); a separate budget line for reproductive health and commodities (2009); direct funding to institutions training health professionals (2009); an annual “Safe Motherhood” week and obligatory inclusion of activities to promote Maternal Neonatal and Child Health in district action plans (2010); increased government expenditure on family planning commodities (Ministry of Health, 2008; Mukonka, 2012; Mukonka et al ., 2014); the “Eight-Year Integrated Family Planning Scale-Up Plan, 2013-2020” (2012); and the “Road Map for Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Mortality 2013-2016” (2013)’ (Evans, forthcoming).…”

Section: The Impact Of Benchmarking In Zambiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Reputations count: why benchmarking performance is improving health care across the world

Bevan

Evans

Nuti

2018

HEPL

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This paper explores what motivates improved health care performance. Previously, many have thought that performance would either improve via choice and competition or by relying on trust and altruism. But neither assumption is supported by available evidence. So instead we explore a third approach of reciprocal altruism with sanctions for unacceptably poor performance and rewards for high performance. These rewards and sanctions, however, are not monetary, but in the form of reputational effects through public reporting of benchmarking of performance. Drawing on natural experiments in Italy and the United Kingdom, we illustrate how public benchmarking can improve poor performance at the national level through 'naming and shaming' and enhance good performance at the sub-national level through 'competitive benchmarking' and peer learning. Ethnographic research in Zambia also showed how reputations count. Policy-makers could use these effects in different ways to improve public services.

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Section: The Impact Of Benchmarking In Zambiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Reputations count: why benchmarking performance is improving health care across the world

Bevan

Evans

Nuti

2018

HEPL

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“…14-17). These statistics suggest good progress over the last several decades, offset by continued struggles in securing adequate standards of general and environmental health (Gabay, 2011;Groenewald, 2011;Mukonka et al, 2014), especially in an equitable manner across socioeconomic class (Kangalawe et al, 2008;Yanda and William, 2010).…”

Section: Environmental Health In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Household-scale environmental health in the Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland

Proctor¹,

Rathbun²,

Scheibe³

et al. 2014

Afr. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

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An environmental health assessment of 210 households located in four communities in the Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland, is summarized. The assessment focused on household-scale environmental health in the context of four key resource sectors: drinking water, energy, solid waste and human waste, with availability and perceived adequacy considered for each sector. The survey was administered in the field by small teams of students alongside Swazi community members, utilizing a snowball sampling strategy with stratification by economic class. Electronic administration via mobile devices assisted in geolocating records, minimizing entry error and rapidly compiling results for daily review and analysis. Results indicate challenges in household access to basic resources and resource impacts, even in this relatively developed part of Swaziland; these results varied considerably by community and economic class, and were only somewhat comparable to previous national-scale assessments. In a larger context, international efforts toward improving household-scale environmental health conditions (e.g., via related UN Millennium Development Goals) are laudable, yet these results corroborate other research suggesting that progress can be difficult to measure, and is decidedly uneven by household location and socioeconomic status.

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Amplifying accountability by benchmarking results at district and national levels

Evans

2017

Development Policy Review

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This multi‐level ethnography of the Zambian health system illustrates the importance of top‐down accountability, and how it has emerged in a historically neglected sector. Maternal healthcare indicators are prioritized when they are benchmarked, at district and national levels. The realization that Zambia was lagging behind African countries in making progress towards Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 (to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters) appears to have evoked reputational concerns and revealed inspirational possibilities. Growing prioritization also stems from a change in incentives, with some partner funding being conditional on the proportion of deliveries attended by skilled health personnel.

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Holding a country countdown to 2015 conference on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the Zambian experience

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

Reputations count: why benchmarking performance is improving health care across the world

Reputations count: why benchmarking performance is improving health care across the world

Household-scale environmental health in the Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland

Amplifying accountability by benchmarking results at district and national levels

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