PHA-Exch> EQUINET Discussion Paper 73: Experiences of Parliamentary Committees on Health in promoting health equity in East and Southern Africa

[Claudio Schuftan]

   From:    rene at tarsc.org


*EQUINET Discussion Paper 73: **Experiences of Parliamentary Committees on
Health in promoting health equity in East and Southern Africa** ***

*TARSC, UCT, SEAPACOH
*
*Cite as:* Loewenson R, London L, Thomas J, Mbombo N, Mulumba M, Kadungure
A, Manga N, Mukono A (TARSC, UCT, SEAPACOH) (2009) Experiences of
Parliamentary Committees on Health in promoting health equity in East and
Southern Africa  ’ *EQUINET Discussion Paper Series 73. *EQUINET: Harare.

*
Available online at: *
http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/DIS73parlgen09.pdf

Parliaments can play a key role in promoting health and health equity
through their representative, legislative and oversight roles, including
budget oversight.  To better understand and support the practical
implementation of these roles, EQUINET (through University of Cape Town
(UCT) and its secretariat at Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC)
with SEAPACOH  implemented a questionnaire  survey in September 2008  to
explore and document the work and experiences of parliamentary committees on
health. This report presents the findings on the general progress on
parliament work on health.  The survey highlighted a number of areas of
current focus of parliament work in health, the potential and experience of
positive outcomes, and the limits and constraints to address to support
further work. In the budget process parliaments have generally played a role
in advocating and engaging on the Abuja commitment, with increasing budget
shares to health in a majority of countries, although the target has only
been met in two of those included in the survey. Legislative activity is
less common, and areas that  are of public health concern, such as
incorporating TRIPS flexibilities or international commitments into national
law are still not well known by parliaments or acted on.  Oversight and
representative roles are the most frequently reported area of committee
action, and parliaments have played an important role in raising debate on
and profile of health issues.  It appears from the evidence that parliaments
can support progress in health equity by enhancing funding for prioritised
areas in the budget process, by raising awareness of health issues through
parliament debates, by raising public attention to prioritised concerns
through media liaison, by gathering evidence and views from communities and
communicating issues to communities through constituency visits,  and by
raising very specific questions to the executive to address.



*March 2009*

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Further information on EQUINET can be found at www.equinetafrica.org, where
all publications of the network can be found and downloaded.
Comments and peer review feedback on this or any other EQUINET publication
are welcomed and should be sent to admin at equinetafrica.org
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