Reclaiming The Resources for Health

Global attention to equity and to Africa is growing. In 2006 the United Nations focused on these issues in three key reports and the WHO set up a Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. With Africa as the focus of commissions and special programmes, the WHO Director General declared improved health in Africa top priority. The 30th anniversary of the Alma Ata declaration on primary healthcare will bring even greater focus on health in Africa in 2008. Missing from this heightened focus is a synthesis of evidence and analysis by people within Africa of how to tackle inequalities in health. This regional equity analysis offers a comprehensive, yet accessible, resource presented through text, tables, figures, case studies, quotes and images. Evidence is drawn from published literature and formal government data, as well as from less commonly documented experience within the region – from grey literature, interviews and testimonials, gathered through participatory processes. It strikes a balance between technical information and terminology and descriptive insight into people's experience of providing and accessing healthcare in the region. Although the health picture for east and southern Africa is currently quite bleak, the spirit that emerges across the seven sections of the book is one of hope.

This book provides a source of evidence and analysis to support and advance the work of health policy makers, researchers and activists and the diverse academic, state and civil society community involved in health equity within east and southern Africa. It is relevant for policies and programmes within and beyond the health sector in the region and will be valuable to international agencies working on and in Africa, particularly given the current global commitment to and attention on Africa. The book was produced by the steering committee of the Regional Network on Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET).