Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by WALT, G.
Right arrow Articles by GILSON, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by WALT, G.
Right arrow Articles by GILSON, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Health Policy and Planning; 9(4): 353-370
© 1994

review-article

Reforming the health sector in developing countries: the central role of policy analysis

GILL WALT1, and LUCY GILSON1,2

1Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine UK
2Department of Social Policy and Administration, London School of Economics and Political Science UK

Correspondence: Dr Gill Walt, Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.

Policy analysis is an established discipline in the industrialized world, yet its application to developing countries has been limited. The health sector in particular appears to have been neglected. This is surprising because there is a well recognized crisis in health systems, and prescriptions abound of what health policy reforms countries should introduce. However, little attention has been paid to how countries should carry out reforms, much less who is likely to favour or resist such policies.

This paper argues that much health policy wrongly focuses attention on the content of reform, and neglects the actors involved in policy reform (at the international, national and sub-national levels), the processes contingent on developing and implementing change and the context within which policy is developed. Focus on policy content diverts attention from understanding the processes which explain why desired policy outcomes fail to emerge. The paper is organized in 4 sections. The first sets the scene, demonstrating how the shift from consensus to conflict in health policy established the need for a greater emphasis on policy analysis. The second section explores what is meant by policy analysis. The third investigates what other disciplines have written that help to develop a framework of analysis. And the final section suggests how policy analysis can be used not only to analyze the policy process, but also to plan.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Health Policy PlanHome page
L. Gilson and N. Raphaely
The terrain of health policy analysis in low and middle income countries: a review of published literature 1994-2007
Health Policy Plan., July 22, 2008; (2008) czn019v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Health Policy PlanHome page
I. A. Agyepong and S. Adjei
Public social policy development and implementation: a case study of the Ghana National Health Insurance scheme
Health Policy Plan., March 1, 2008; 23(2): 150 - 160.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J Health PsycholHome page
A. J . Flisher, C. Lund, M. Funk, M. Banda, A. Bhana, V. Doku, N. Drew, F. N. Kigozi, M. Knapp, M. Omar, et al.
Mental Health Policy Development and Implementation in Four African Countries
J Health Psychol, May 1, 2007; 12(3): 505 - 516.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 BMJHome page
K. Lee, S. Collinson, G. Walt, and L. Gilson
Who should be doing what in international health: a confusion of mandates in the United Nations?
BMJ, February 3, 1996; 312(7026): 302 - 307.
[Full Text]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.