RESEARCHPROJECTS MANAGED
(IDRC - IDRISDATA BASE)

[Project value:Quoted in Canadian dollars not deflated]

1999

Financing Municipal Health Systems and Equity (Brazil)

This research project will focus on the problem of financing the health system in Brazil, specifically in terms of the allocation and expenditure of resources, and on an analysis of the technical and theoretical assumptions underlying that financing system.  The general objective is to develop criteria for allocating funding among the three levels of SHS / SUS management (federal, state and municipal), for municipal health systems, with a view to achieving equity. The specific objectives are to identify and analyze criteria such as population base, historic data on service output, schedule of payments for procedures, among others, used for allocating SHS / SUS funds in municipal health systems, with the purpose of explaining the current logic behind SHS / SUS funding; identify and analyse the epidemiological models used to assess health and living conditions for the purpose of constructing indicators for allocating health funding, with a view to equity; identify and analyse models for evaluating health services and systems for the purpose of constructing indicators for allocating health care funding, with a view to equity; propose indicators for the operationalization of criteria for allocating financial resources, with a view to equity, in the integrated planning and programming (PPI) of the SHS / SUS.  The following outputs are expected to result from this project: a) In the area of knowledge,a "state of the art" in terms of epidemiological models and models for assessing services and their application in financing equity-targeted health systems;  b) In the area of research into health services and systems, a contribution to the methodological development of studies on the financing of equity-targeted health systems, by constructing instruments and techniques that can be applied in such research; c) Definition of technical criteria for allocating health resources with a view to equity, by developing asystem of indicators; and, d) Dissemination of research results through stakeholders, in addition to health system managers and the scientific community. 

http://www.idrc.ca/lacro/foro/projects/financing-s.htm

Decentralized Management of Health Services (Venezuela)

 There is not enough information about the status of health decentralization andperformance of public and private health institutions created by decentralization and privatization in Venezuela. Debates about policy options and decision making process are guided by political and sectoral interests rather than by knowledge on strategic choices based on diagnoses and information about the local health condition of the population.  There is a need to examine the process of health decentralization and the performance of statehealth institutions (Organizaciones Estatales de Salud) in order to generate up-dated information on the process, and to promote integration of this knowledge into the policy making process in the medium and long term. The general objectives of the project are 1. Evaluate the extent to which the transference of competencies to state health institutions facilitates the efficient, effective, and equitable provision of health services. 2. Examine the relation between health decentralization and the epidemiological condition of the population. 3. Disseminate and promote adoption of the project results by the policy making process in the medium and long term.  The specific objectives are: to describe the structures, legal frameworks, and operations/functioning of a representative sample of state health institutions (Organizaciones Estatales de Salud - OES) created between 1990 and 1998; to compare performance of selected state health institutions in terms of their effective, equitable, and efficient provision of health services to the population; to examine the relations between transference of competencies related to decentralized health service provision and the performance of state health institutions in the epidemiological and organizational areas; to identify scenarios and policy options for the management of health services, in the context of decentralization; to disseminate project results among stakeholders in the health sector; and, to promote adoption of project results by policymakers in the medium and long term.  Expected results are two publications (1000 copies each) corresponding to the project's interim reports; no less than three articles in national or international journals and newspapers; a book about final results of the project; strengthening of NGOs participating in the project; advice on policy options for the financing and allocation of resources to state health institutions and Regional Health Directions; advice and recommendations for the Ministry of Health and Social Development concerning reformulation and management of health policies; and,  methodologies for policy analysis and improvement of the policy making process and program management in the health sector. The project will have three phases for description of cases, generation of explanatory models for testing working hypotheses related to different policy scenarios, andthe final assessment of policy options.  A strategy to generate debate about policy options will be implemented.  A geographical representative sample of five federal states will be obtained. The unit of analysis will be state health institutions such as Regional Health Directions, health foundations, corporations, and health institutes.  The project will be implemented in a 22 month period and will have three phases of 7.5,6.5, and 8 months each.

http://www.idrc.ca/lacro/foro/
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