This article appears in the following Health Policy and Planning issue: Future directions for health policy analysis: a tribute to the work of Professor Gill Walt [View the issue table of contents]
‘Doing’ health policy analysis: methodological and conceptual reflections and challenges
1Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
2Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
3Centre for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
4King's College London, UK.
5Department of Epidemiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
6Health Economics and Financing Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
7School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
*Corresponding author. Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK. E-mail: gill.walt{at}lshtm.ac.uk
The case for undertaking policy analysis has been made by a number of scholars and practitioners. However, there has been much less attention given to how to do policy analysis, what research designs, theories or methods best inform policy analysis. This paper begins by looking at the health policy environment, and some of the challenges to researching this highly complex phenomenon. It focuses on research in middle and low income countries, drawing on some of the frameworks and theories, methodologies and designs that can be used in health policy analysis, giving examples from recent studies. The implications of case studies and of temporality in research design are explored. Attention is drawn to the roles of the policy researcher and the importance of reflexivity and researcher positionality in the research process. The final section explores ways of advancing the field of health policy analysis with recommendations on theory, methodology and researcher reflexivity.
Key Words: Policy analysis, methodology, process, health policy
Accepted for publication 22 June 2008.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  K Buse, N Lalji, S H Mayhew, M Imran, and S J Hawkes Political feasibility of scaling-up five evidence-informed HIV interventions in Pakistan: a policy analysis Sex Transm Inf, April 1, 2009; 85(Suppl_2): ii37 - ii42. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 E. Erasmus and L. Gilson How to start thinking about investigating power in the organizational settings of policy implementation Health Policy Plan., September 1, 2008; 23(5): 361 - 368. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|