Understanding global health and development partnerships: Perspectives from African and global health system professionals

Partnership is a key idea in current debates about global health and development assistance, yet little is known about what partnership means to those who are responsible for operationalising it or how it is experienced in practice. This is particularly the case in the context of African health syst...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 159; pp. 22 - 29
Main Authors: Barnes, Amy, Brown, Garrett W., Harman, Sophie
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2016
Pergamon Press Inc
Subjects:
Africa
Capacity Building - methods
Civil society
Consultants
Critical events
Developing Countries
Development aid
Development policy
Development programs
Development strategies
Economic aid
Global health
Global Health - manpower
Global health and development assistance
Government agencies
Health
Health care
Health care policy
Health policy
Health Policy - trends
Health professionals
Health systems
Humans
International Cooperation
Medical personnel
Partnering
Partnerships
Policy making
Political systems
Professionals
Public Health - methods
Public policy
Qualitative Research
Social Planning
Sociocultural factors
Work skills
Africa
South Africa
Switzerland, Geneva
Zambia
ISW, Tanzania
USA, Washington D.C
Partnerships
Health systems
Health policy
Global health and development assistance
Health professionals
Africa
ISSN:0277-9536, 1873-5347, 1873-5347
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Partnership is a key idea in current debates about global health and development assistance, yet little is known about what partnership means to those who are responsible for operationalising it or how it is experienced in practice. This is particularly the case in the context of African health systems. This paper explores how health professionals working in global health hubs and the health systems of South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia understand and experience partnership. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 101 professionals based in each country, Washington DC and Geneva between October 2012 and June 2013, the paper makes four key arguments. First, partnership has a legitimating function in global health policy processes for international development institutions, government agencies and civil society organisations alike. Second, the practice of partnership generates idiosyncratic and complicated relationships that health professionals have to manage and navigate, often informally. Third, partnership is shaped by historical legacies, critical events, and independent consultants. Fourth, despite being an accepted part of global health policy, there is little shared understanding of what good partnership is meant to include or resemble in practice. Knowing more about the specific socio-cultural and political dynamics of partnership in different health system contexts is critical to equip health professionals with the skills to build the informal relations that are essential to effective partnership engagement. •Partnership has a legitimating function for stakeholders in African health systems.•Local practice is shaped by historical legacies, focusing events and consultants.•African stakeholders influence the pace of partnership work but do so unevenly.•Informal relations are key and must be carefully managed by health professionals who are equipped with appropriate skills.•Global policy commitment to partnership is poorly grounded in evidence from Africa.
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ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.04.033