An Introduction to Health Planning in Developing Countries

by Andrew Green (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $14.00

  The importance of planning in the health sector has become widely recognized in recent years. Planning involves deciding how resources should be allocated and determining how to implement these decisions. For developing countries, which are attempting to improve their poor levels of health with extremely limited resources, judicious health planning may be critical. This book covers all aspects of planning for health in developing countries. Within the context of a primary health care approach, it emphasizes the many factors that impinge on health, the different non-governmental agencies involved in health activities, and the need for participation in planning by communities. Equity is an important theme throughout the book. The need for combining planning techniques and political analysis is stressed, as is the importance of planning by a wide variety of health professionals in addition to specialist health planners. Although this is an introductory text, it has been written to initiate those with no prior planning experience, as well as qualified health planners, to the problems relevant to developing countries.

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $3.49

  This book is the second edition of a successful and well-respected text aimed at planners and health policy makers involved in planning for health in developing countries. This book is also highly relevant for Central and Eastern Europe where many countries are now trying to develop new, more flexible and decentralized approaches to health care under clear resource constraints. This edition continues to be based on the premise that the State has a key role to play in the health sector and that planning is an important mechanism for carrying out this role. The book begins by explaining the importance of health planning, stressing the balanced combination of technique and judgements necessary for successful planning. It outlines the policy context internationally within which health planning operates including recent health sector reform policies and longer- standing policies of Primary Health Care. The book then looks at each of the key stages in the Planning Spiral from the Situational Analysis through to Evaluation. Each of these is dealt with in a chapter, which introduces key concepts and techniques. The book ends with an analysis of why planning has not always been successful and discusses how it can be strengthened. The book overall focuses on public sector planning, but stresses the need for an approach to planning that looks at all sectors and organisations involved in health. In addition to the main text, the book also contains a number of exercises to practice techniques and an extensive bibliography for each chapter. The book also provides a list of key web-sites.