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<div style="DIRECTION: ltr">   From:    <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:rene@tarsc.org">rene@tarsc.org</a><br> <br>   </div>
<div style="DIRECTION: ltr"><tt><b><font face="Arial" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">EQUINET Discussion Paper 73: </span></font></b></tt><b><font face="Arial" color="maroon" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Experiences of Parliamentary Committees on Health in promoting health equity in East and Southern Africa</span></font></b><b><font face="Arial" color="maroon" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font></b><b><font face="Arial" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span></font></b></div>

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<p><b><font face="Arial" color="#660000" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">TARSC, UCT, SEAPACOH<br></span></font></b><br><tt><b><font face="Arial" color="#660000" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Cite as:</span></font></b></tt><tt><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> </span></font></tt><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Loewenson R, London L, Thomas J, Mbombo N, Mulumba M, Kadungure A, <span>Manga</span> N, Mukono A </span></font><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">(TARSC, UCT, SEAPACOH) (2009) Experiences of Parliamentary Committees on Health in promoting health equity in East and Southern Africa<span>  </span><span>’ </span><i><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">EQUINET Discussion Paper Series 73. </span></i>EQUINET: Harare.</span></font></p>

<p><b><font face="Arial" color="#660000" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><br><tt><font face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Available online at: </span></font></tt></span></font></b><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/DIS73parlgen09.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/DIS73parlgen09.pdf</a> </span></font><br>
<font color="purple"><span style="COLOR: purple"><br></span></font><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Parliaments can play a key role in promoting health and health equity through their representative, legislative and oversight roles, including budget oversight.<span>  </span>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<span>  </span>implemented a questionnaire<span>  </span>survey in September 2008 </span></font><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><span> </span></span></font><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">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. <span> </span></span></font><font face="Arial" color="purple" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: purple; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">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 <span>that<span>  </span>are</span> 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.<span>  </span>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. <span> </span>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<span>,<span>  </span>and</span> by raising very specific questions to the executive to address.<span>  </span></span></font></p>

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<p><tt><b><font face="Arial" color="#993300" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #993300; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">March 2009</span></font></b></tt><font face="Arial" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><br>
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<br><tt><font face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Further information on EQUINET can be found at <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.equinetafrica.org/" target="_blank"><font color="black"><span style="COLOR: windowtext">www.equinetafrica.org</span></font></a>, where all publications of the network can be found and downloaded.</span></font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Comments and peer review feedback on this or any other EQUINET publication are welcomed and should be sent to <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:admin@equinetafrica.org" target="_blank"><font color="black"><span style="COLOR: windowtext">admin@equinetafrica.org</span></font></a></span></font></tt></span></font></p>
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