Browsing by Author "Gilson, Lucy"

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    Action learning for health system governance: the reward and challenge of co-production
    (Oxford University Press, 2014-08-26) Lehmann, Uta; Gilson, Lucy
    Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is centrally concerned with people, their relationships and the actions and practices they can implement towards better health systems. These concerns suggest that HPS researchers must work in direct engagement with the practitioners and practice central to the inquiry, acknowledging their tacit knowledge and drawing it into generating new insights into health system functioning. Social science perspectives are of particular importance in this field because health policies and health systems are themselves social and political constructs. However, how can social science methodologies such as action research and narrative and appreciative enquiry enable such research, and how can methodologies from different disciplines be woven together to construct and make meaning of evidence for 'this' field? This article seeks to present 'methodological musings' on these points, to prompt wider discussion on the practice of HPSR. It draws on one long-term collaborative action learning research project being undertaken in Cape Town, South Africa. The District Innovation and Action Learning for Health System Development project is an action research partnership between two South African academic institutions and two health authorities focused, ultimately, on strengthening governance in primary health care. Drawing on this experience, the article considers three interrelated issues: The diversity and complexities of practitioner and research actors involved in co-producing HPSR; The nature of co-production and the importance of providing space to grapple across different systems of meaning; The character of evidence and data in co-production. There is much to be learnt from research traditions outside the health sector, but HPSR must work out its own practices-through collaboration and innovation among researchers and practitioners. In this article, we provide one set of experiences to prompt wider reflection and stimulate engagement on the practice of HPSR for people-centred health systems.
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    Advancing the application of systems thinking in health: South African examples of a leadership of sensemaking for primary health care
    (Biomed Central, 2014) Gilson, Lucy; Elloker, Soraya; Olckers, Patti; Lehmann, Uta
    BACKGROUND: New forms of leadership are required to bring about the fundamental health system changes demanded by primary health care (PHC). Using theory about complex adaptive systems and policy implementation, this paper considers how actors' sensemaking and the exercise of discretionary power currently combine to challenge PHC re-orientation in the South African health system; and provides examples of leadership practices that promote sensemaking and power use in support of PHC. METHODS: The paper draws on observational, interview, and reflective data collected as part of the District Innovation and Action Learning for Health Systems Development (DIALHS) project being implemented in Cape Town, South Africa. Undertaken collaboratively between health managers and RESEARCHERS, the project is implemented through cycles of action-learning, including systematic reflection and synthesis. It includes a particular focus on how local health managers can better support front line facility managers in strengthening PHC. RESULTS: The results illuminate how the collective understandings of staff working at the primary level - of their working environment and changes within it - act as a barrier to centrally-led initiatives to strengthen PHC. Staff often fail to take ownership of such initiatives and experience them as disempowering. Local area managers, located between the centre and the service frontline, have a vital role to play in providing a leadership of sensemaking to mediate these challenges. Founded on personal values, such leadership entails, for example, efforts to nurture PHC-aligned values and mind-sets among staff; build relationships and support the development of shared meanings about change; instil a culture of collective inquiry and mutual accountability; and role-model management practices, including using language to signal meaning. CONCLUSIONS: PHC will only become a lived reality within the South African health system when frontline staff are able to make sense of policy intentions and incorporate them into their everyday routines and practices. This requires a leadership of sensemaking that enables front line staff to exercise their collective discretionary power in strengthening PHC. We hope this theoretically-framed analysis of one set of experiences stimulates wider thinking about the leadership needed to sustain primary health care in other settings.
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    Analysis of aid coordination in a post-conflict country : the case of Burundi and HRH policies
    (University of the Western Cape, 2015) Cailhol, Johann; Lehmann, Uta; Gilson, Lucy
    Aid coordination in the health sector is known to be challenging in general, but even more in post-conflict settings, due to the multiplicity of actors of development, to the sense of emergency in providing health services, combined with the so-called weak institutional capacities‘ at local level, resulting from the conflict. This study sought to analyze broad determinants of aid coordination using the example of HRH policies in Burundi, during the post-conflict period. Burundi is a country in Central Africa, which experienced cyclic ethnic conflicts since its independence in 1962, the last conflict being the longest (1993-2006).Determinants of coordination were analyzed using the policy-analysis triangle (Gilson et Walt), using data from documents and semi-structured interviews, conducted in 2009 and in 2011, at national, provincial and facility-levels. A conceptual framework, combining organizational and social sciences theories, was devised in order to assess the organizational power of MoH, the one supposed to act as coordinator in the health sector. Findings showed a lack of coordination due to post-conflict specific context, to competition over scarce resources between both donor and recipient organizations and to an insufficiently incentivized and complex coordination process in practical. Most importantly, this research demonstrated the crucial role of post-conflict habitus and mistrust in the behavior of MoH and their influence on organizational power, and, in turn on their capacity to coordinate and exert an appropriate leadership. These findings, together with the growing body of literature on organizational sociology and collective trust, point at the crucial need to rebuild some of the wounded collective trust and organizational leadership in Burundi and in other fragile states.
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    Constraints to implementing an equity-promoting staff allocation policy: understanding key actors perspectives affecting implementation in South Africa
    (Oxford University Press, 2012) Scott, Vera; Mathews, Verona; Gilson, Lucy
    Much of current research on issues of equity in low- and middle-income countries focuses on uncovering and describing the extent of inequities in health status and health service provision. In terms of policy responses to inequity, there is a growing body of work on resource reallocation strategies. However, little published work exists on the challenges of implementing new policies intended to improve equity in health status or health service delivery. While the appropriateness of the technical content of policies clearly influences whether or not they promote equity, policy analysis theory suggests that it is important to consider how the processes of policy development and implementation influence policy achievements. Drawing on actor analysis and implementation theory, we seek to understand some of the dynamics surrounding the proposed implementation of one set of South African staff allocation strategies responding to broader equity-oriented policy mandates. These proposals were developed by a team of researchers and mid-level managers in 2003 and called for the reallocation of staff between better- and lesser-resourced districts in the Cape Town Metropolitan region to reduce broader resource allocation inequities. This was felt necessary because up to 70% of public health expenditure was on staff, and new financing for health care was unavailable. We focus on the views and reactions of the two sets of implementing actors most directly influenced by the proposed staff reallocation strategies: district health managers and clinic nurses. One strength of this analysis is that it gives voice to the experience of the district level—the key but much neglected implementation arena in a decentralized health system. The paper’s findings unpack differences in these actors’ positions on the proposed strategies, and explore the factors influencing their positions. Ultimately, we show how a lack of trust in the relationships between mid-level managers and nurse service providers influenced the potential to implement a specific set of equity-oriented strategies
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    Development of the health system in the Western Cape: experiences since 1994
    (Health Systems Trust (HST), 2017) Gilson, Lucy; David Pienaar, Tracey; Brady, Leanne; Hawkridge, Anthony; Naled, Tracey; Vallabhjee, Krish; Schneider, Helen
    Provincial governments in South Africa have a critical responsibility in terms of population health, yet few provincial-level analyses of health-system development have been undertaken. This chapter reports on research being conducted in the Western Cape to understand the province’s particular experience of health-system transformation since 1994, set against wider national experience. The research is being undertaken collaboratively by the authors of this chapter, a team of Western Cape provincial health managers and researchers. The chapter is structured to reflect the Western Cape’s 22-year experience. The situation that faced the province in 1994 is outlined briefly, followed by a description of key features of the three health strategies that have driven provincial health-system development over time. An assessment is then presented of the overall nature and patterns of Western Cape health-system change, and the achievements and limitations of this transformation are considered. The chapter concludes with some early lessons from this experience, and relevant, international experience is considered.
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    Enabling relational leadership in primary healthcare settings: lessons from the DIALHS collaboration
    (Oxford University Press, 2018) Cleary, Susan; du Toit, Alison; Scott, Vera; Gilson, Lucy
    Strong management and leadership competencies have been identified as critical in enhancing health system performance. While the need for strong health system leadership has been raised, an important undertaking for health policy and systems researchers is to generate lessons about how to support leadership development (LD), particularly within the crisis-prone, resource poor contexts that are characteristic of Low- and Middle-Income health systems. As part of the broader DIALHS (District Innovation and Action Learning for Health Systems Development) collaboration, this article reflects on 5 years of action learning and engagement around leadership and LD within primary healthcare (PHC) services. Working in one sub-district in Cape Town, we cocreated LD processes with managers from nine PHC facilities and with the six members of the sub-district management team. Within this article, we seek to provide insights into how leadership is currently practiced and to highlight lessons about whether and how our approach to LD enabled a strengthening of leadership within this setting. Findings suggest that the sub-district is located within a hierarchical governance context, with performance monitored through the use of multiple accountability mechanisms including standard operating procedures, facility audits and target setting processes. This context presents an important constraint to the development of a more distributed, relational leadership. While our data suggest that gains in leadership were emerging, our experience is of a system struggling to shift from a hierarchical to a more relational understanding of how to enable improvements in performance, and to implement these changes in practice.
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    Exploring how different modes of governance act across health system levels to influence primary healthcare facility managers' use of information in decisionmaking: experience from Cape Town, South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2017) Scott, Vera; Gilson, Lucy
    BACKGROUND: Governance, which includes decision-making at all levels of the health system, and information have been identified as key, interacting levers of health system strengthening. However there is an extensive literature detailing the challenges of supporting health managers to use formal information from health information systems (HISs) in their decision-making. While health information needs differ across levels of the health system there has been surprisingly little empirical work considering what information is actually used by primary healthcare facility managers in managing, and making decisions about, service delivery. This paper, therefore, specifically examines experience from Cape Town, South Africa, asking the question: How is primary healthcare facility managers’ use of information for decision-making influenced by governance across levels of the health system? The research is novel in that it both explores what information these facility managers actually use in decision-making, and considers how wider governance processes influence this information use. METHODS: An academic researcher and four facility managers worked as co-researchers in a multi-case study in which three areas of management were served as the cases. There were iterative cycles of data collection and collaborative analysis with individual and peer reflective learning over a period of three years. RESULTS: Central governance shaped what information and knowledge was valued – and, therefore, generated and used at lower system levels. The central level valued formal health information generated in the district-based HIS which therefore attracted management attention across the levels of the health system in terms of design, funding and implementation. This information was useful in the top-down practices of planning and management of the public health system. However, in facilities at the frontline of service delivery, there was a strong requirement for local, disaggregated information and experiential knowledge to make locally-appropriate and responsive decisions, and to perform the people management tasks required. Despite central level influences, modes of governance operating at the subdistrict level had influence over what information was valued, generated and used locally. CONCLUSIONS: Strengthening local level managers’ ability to create enabling environments is an important leverage point in supporting informed local decision-making, and, in turn, translating national policies and priorities, including equity goals, into appropriate service delivery practices.
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    Exploring how different modes of governance act across health system levels to influence primary healthcare facility managers’ use of information in decisionmaking: experience from Cape Town, South Africa
    (BMC, 2017) Scott, Vera; Gilson, Lucy
    BACKGROUND: Governance, which includes decision-making at all levels of the health system, and information have been identified as key, interacting levers of health system strengthening. However there is an extensive literature detailing the challenges of supporting health managers to use formal information from health information systems (HISs) in their decision-making. While health information needs differ across levels of the health system there has been surprisingly little empirical work considering what information is actually used by primary healthcare facility managers in managing, and making decisions about, service delivery. This paper, therefore, specifically examines experience from Cape Town, South Africa, asking the question: How is primary healthcare facility managers’ use of information for decision-making influenced by governance across levels of the health system? The research is novel in that it both explores what information these facility managers actually use in decision-making, and considers how wider governance processes influence this information use. METHODS: An academic researcher and four facility managers worked as co-researchers in a multi-case study in which three areas of management were served as the cases. There were iterative cycles of data collection and collaborative analysis with individual and peer reflective learning over a period of three years. RESULTS: Central governance shaped what information and knowledge was valued – and, therefore, generated and used at lower system levels. The central level valued formal health information generated in the district-based HIS which therefore attracted management attention across the levels of the health system in terms of design, funding and implementation. This information was useful in the top-down practices of planning and management of the public health system. However, in facilities at the frontline of service delivery, there was a strong requirement for local, disaggregated information and experiential knowledge to make locally-appropriate and responsive decisions, and to perform the people management tasks required. Despite central level influences, modes of governance operating at the subdistrict level had influence over what information was valued, generated and used locally. CONCLUSIONS: Strengthening local level managers’ ability to create enabling environments is an important leverage point in supporting informed local decision-making, and, in turn, translating national policies and priorities, including equity goals, into appropriate service delivery practices.
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    Health systems for all in the SDG era: Key reflections based on the Liverpool statement for the fifth global symposium on health systems research
    (Health Policy and Planning, 2019) George, Asha; Olivier, Jill; Glandon, Douglas; Kapilashrami, Anuj; Gilson, Lucy
    The year 2018 marked anniversaries of several significant milestones in public health: the birth of the UK National Health Service, the Alma Ata declaration and the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. The Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Liverpool reflected on these foundational events and their significance for the maturing field of health policy and systems research (HPSR) and for our growing professional association, Health Systems Global (HSG; Text Box 1). The Symposium’s theme, Health Systems for All in the Sustainable Development Goal Era, encapsulated the spirit of those historical commitments and brought them forward into current con- texts, framing universal health coverage and beyond (5th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, 2018). Our democracies are under threat, our societies more polarized and our ecosystems undermined. Conflict and epidemics are not given adequate political attention, and across countries gender and intersectional inequalities remain glaring. It is amidst these contexts that our histories remind us of the progressive values that underpin ideal health systems. A key aim of HSG is to strengthen health systems by combining socially relevant science with effective, accountable and inclusive institutions to guide diverse social actors on the path to health and equity. In doing so, it is critical for health policy and systems researchers and practitioners to, above all, remain undaunted in striving for the realization of our aspirational goals despite these contemporary challenges.
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    Mapping the existing body of health policy implementation research in lower income settings: what is covered and what are the gaps?
    (Oxford University Press (OUP), 2014) Erasmus, Ermin; Orgill, Marsha; Schneider, Helen; Gilson, Lucy
    This article uses 85 peer-reviewed articles published between 1994 and 2009 to characterize and synthesize aspects of the health policy analysis literature focusing on policy implementation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It seeks to contribute, first, to strengthening the field of LMIC health policy analysis by highlighting gaps in the literature and generating ideas for a future research agenda and, second, to thinking about the value and applicability of qualitative synthesis approaches to the health policy analysis field. Overall, the article considers the disciplinary perspectives from which LMIC health policy implementation is studied and the extent to which the focus is on systems or programme issues. It then works with the more specific themes of the key thrusts of the reviewed articles, the implementation outcomes studied, implementation improvement recommendations made and the theories used in the reviewed articles. With respect to these more specific themes, the article includes explorations of patterns within the themes themselves, the contributions of specific disciplinary perspectives and differences between systems and programme articles. It concludes, among other things, that the literature remains small, fragmented, of limited depth and quite diverse, reflecting a wide spectrum of health system dimensions studied and many different suggestions for improving policy implementation. However, a range of issues beyond traditional ‘hardware’ health system concerns, such as funding and organizational structure, are understood to influence policy implementation, including many ‘software’ issues such as the understandings of policy actors and the need for better communication and actor relationships. Looking to the future, there is a need, given the fragmentation in the literature, to consolidate the existing body of work where possible and, given the often broad nature of the work and its limited depth, to draw more explicitly on theoretical frames and concepts to deepen work by sharpening and focusing concerns and questions.
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    Paramedics, poetry, and film: Health policy and systems research at the intersection of theory, art, and practice
    (Human Resources for Health, 2019) Brady, Leanne; De Vries, Shaheem; Gallow, Rushaana; George, Asha; Gilson, Lucy; Louw, Moira; Martin, Abdul Waheem; Shamis, Khalid; Stuart, Toni
    Violence is a public health issue. It is the consequence of a complex set of interacting political, social, and economic factors firmly rooted in past and current injustice. South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, and in some areas, the rates of violence are comparable to a country that is at war. Increasingly, paramedics working in high-risk areas of Cape Town are being caught in the crossfire, and in 2018, there was an attack on a paramedic crew nearly every week. These attacks are a symptom of much deeper, complex societal issues. Clearly, we require new approaches to better understand the complexity as we collectively find a way forward. It is in this context that we are collaborating with paramedics, poets, and filmmakers to tell human stories from the frontline thereby bringing the lived experiences of healthcare workers into policy making processes. In this commentary, we share a series of poems and a poetry-film that form part of a larger body of work focused on the safety of paramedics, to catalyze discussion about the possibilities that arts-based methods offer us as we seek to better understand and engage with complex social issues that have a direct impact on the health system.
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    Practice and power: a review and interpretive synthesis focused on the exercise of discretionary power in policy implementation by front line providers and managers
    (Oxford University Press, 2014) Gilson, Lucy; Orgill, Marsha; Schneider, Helen
    Tackling the implementation gap is a health policy concern in low- and middleincome countries (LMICs). Limited attention has so far been paid to the influence of power relations over this gap. This article presents, therefore, an interpretive synthesis of qualitative health policy articles addressing the question: how do actors at the front line of health policy implementation exercise discretionary power, with what consequences and why? The article also demonstrates the particular approach of thematic synthesis and contributes to discussion of how such work can inform future health policy research. The synthesis drew from a broader review of published research on any aspect of policy implementation in LMICs for the period 1994–2009. From an initial set of 50 articles identified as relevant to the specific review question, a sample of 16 articles were included in this review. Nine report experience around decentralization, a system-level change, and seven present experience of implementing a range of reproductive health (RH) policies (new forms of service delivery). Three reviewers were involved in a systematic process of data extraction, coding, analysis, synthesis and article writing. The review findings identify: the practices of power exercised by front-line health workers and their managers; their consequences for policy implementation and health system performance; the sources of this power and health workers’ reasons for exercising power. These findings also provide the basis for an overarching synthesis of experience, highlighting the importance of actors, power relations and multiple, embedded contextual elements as dimensions of health system complexity. The significance of this synthesis lies in its insights about: the micropractices of power exercised by front-line providers; how to manage this power through local level strategies both to influence and empower providers to act in support of policy goals; and the focus and nature of future research on these issues.
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    Practicing governance towards equity in health systems: LMIC perspectives and experience
    (BMC, 2017) Gilson, Lucy; Lehmann, Uta; Schneider, Helen
    The unifying theme of the papers in this series is a concern for understanding the everyday practice of governance in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) health systems. Rather than seeing governance as a normative health system goal addressed through the architecture and design of accountability and regulatory frameworks, these papers provide insights into the real-world decision-making of health policy and system actors. Their multiple, routine decisions translate policy intentions into practice – and are filtered through relationships, underpinned by values and norms, influenced by organizational structures and resources, and embedded in historical and socio-political contexts. These decisions are also political acts – in that they influence who accesses benefits and whose voices are heard in decisionmaking, reinforcing or challenging existing institutional exclusion and power inequalities. In other words, the everyday practice of governance has direct impacts on health system equity. The papers in the series address governance through diverse health policy and system issues, consider actors located at multiple levels of the system and draw on multi-disciplinary perspectives. They present detailed examination of experiences in a range of African and Indian settings, led by authors who live and work in these settings. The overall purpose of the papers in this series is thus to provide an empirical and embedded research perspective on governance and equity in health systems.
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    Practicing governance towards equity in health systems: LMIC perspectives and experience
    (BioMed Central, 2017) Gilson, Lucy; Lehmann, Uta; Schneider, Helen
    The unifying theme of the papers in this series is a concern for understanding the everyday practice of governance in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) health systems. Rather than seeing governance as a normative health system goal addressed through the architecture and design of accountability and regulatory frameworks, these papers provide insights into the real-world decision-making of health policy and system actors. Their multiple, routine decisions translate policy intentions into practice – and are filtered through relationships, underpinned by values and norms, influenced by organizational structures and resources, and embedded in historical and socio-political contexts. These decisions are also political acts – in that they influence who accesses benefits and whose voices are heard in decisionmaking, reinforcing or challenging existing institutional exclusion and power inequalities. In other words, the everyday practice of governance has direct impacts on health system equity. The papers in the series address governance through diverse health policy and system issues, consider actors located at multiple levels of the system and draw on multi-disciplinary perspectives. They present detailed examination of experiences in a range of African and Indian settings, led by authors who live and work in these settings. The overall purpose of the papers in this
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    Prioritizing people and rapid learning in times of crisis: A virtual learning initiative to support health workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic
    (Wiley, 2021) Engelbrecht, Beth; Gilson, Lucy; Lehmann, Uta
    The Western Cape province was the early epicentre of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in South Africa and on the African continent. In this short article we report on an initiative set up within the provincial Department of Health early in the pandemic to facilitate collective learning and support for health workers and managers across the health system, emphasising the importance of leadership, systems resilience, nonhierarchical learning and connectedness. These strategies included regular and systematic engagement with organised labour, different ways of gauging and responding to staff morale, and daily ‘huddles’ for raid learning and responsive action.
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    Strategic leadership capacity building for Sub-Saharan African health systems and public health governance: a multi-country assessment of essential competencies and optimal design for a Pan African DrPH
    (Oxford University Press, 2018) Agyepong, Irene Akua; Lehmann, Uta; Rutembemberwa, Elizeus; Babich, Suzanne M.; Frimpong, Edith; Kwamie, Aku; Olivier, Jill; Teddy, Gina; Hwabamungu, Boroto; Gilson, Lucy
    Leadership capacity needs development and nurturing at all levels for strong health systems governance and improved outcomes. The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) is a professional, interdisciplinary terminal degree focused on strategic leadership capacity building. The concept is not new and there are several programmes globally–but none within Africa, despite its urgent need for strong strategic leadership in health. To address this gap, a consortium of institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, UK and North America have embarked on a collaboration to develop and implement a pan-African DrPH with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. This paper presents findings of research to verify relevance, identify competencies and support programme design and customization. A mixed methods cross sectional multi-country study was conducted in Ghana, South Africa and Uganda. Data collection involved a non-exhaustive desk review, 34 key informant (KI) interviews with past and present health sector leaders and a questionnaire with closed and open ended items administered to 271 potential DrPH trainees. Most study participants saw the concept of a pan-African DrPH as relevant and timely. Strategic leadership competencies identified by KI included providing vision and inspiration for the organization, core personal values and character qualities such as integrity and trustworthiness, skills in adapting to situations and context and creating and maintaining effective change and systems. There was consensus that programme design should emphasize learning by doing and application of theory to professional practice. Short residential periods for peer-to-peer and peer-to-facilitator engagement and learning, interspaced with facilitated workplace based learning, including coaching and mentoring, was the preferred model for programme implementation. The introduction of a pan-African DrPH with a focus on strategic leadership is relevant and timely. Core competencies, optimal design and customization for the sub-Saharan African context has broad consensus in the study setting.