153822 Stakeholder analysis at the research-policy interface: Enhancing equity in health systems research in six low and middle income countries

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Shamsuzzoha B. Syed, MD, MPH, DPH , General Preventive Medicine Residency Program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Adnan A. Hyder, MD, MPH, PhD , International Health, and Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Gerry Bloom, BPhil, MDCM , Knowledge, Technology, and Society (KNOTS) Team, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, United Kingdom
David H. Peters, MD, MPH, DrPH , International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Future Health Systems: Innovations for Equity , Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Utilization of systematic stakeholder analysis enhances equity considerations at the research-policy interface in the developing world. Stakeholders - “organizations and individuals involved in a specific activity because they participate in producing, consuming, managing, regulating, or evaluating the activity” - come from disparate backgrounds, varying from powerful decision makers to powerless marginalized health system beneficiaries.

Four key advantages of stakeholder focused approaches in strengthening health system research-policy interfaces can be postulated. First, systematic stakeholder identification, power analysis, concern reporting, and construction of influencing strategies enhances likelihood of pro-equity research successfully influencing policy making. Second, consumer ideas, concerns, and expectations - often ignored due to limited power - can enhance the success of health system reforms based on research. Third, understanding multiple stakeholder perspectives allows intervention refinement using multidimensional thinking and innovation incorporation. Lastly, sharing perspectives between stakeholders, recognizing their inter-relatedness, enhances solidarity around particular interventions – a construction of coalitions.

The research consortium on Future Health Systems: Innovations for Equity is working in six partner countries in Asia and Africa, focusing on strengthening the research-policy interface for specific health systems research projects. Stakeholder analyses are utilized in these settings to enhance equity and access considerations in health systems research. The findings aim to contribute to the global body of knowledge on utilization of the approach in strengthening research-policy interfaces in the developing world.

This paper first presents a review of methodological issues in conducting stakeholder analyses in low and middle income countries; then describes findings from application of such analysis in six countries where the consortium is working; and finally elaborates the implications for policies pertaining to health system research in developing world countries.

Learning Objectives:
1. Recognize the importance of stakeholder focused approaches at the research-policy interface in developing countries. 2. Articulate a definition of stakeholder. 3. List four key advantages of using stakeholder focused approaches at the research-policy interface in developing countries. 4. Identify methodological steps in conducting stakeholder analyses in developing countries. 5. Describe findings from the utilization of such an approach in six developing countries.

Keywords: International Public Health, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
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I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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