Many developing countries are looking to scale-up what works through major systems strengthening investments. With leadership, conviction and commitment, systems thinking can facilitate and ...accelerate the strengthening of systems to more effectively deliver interventions to those in need and be better able to improve health in an equitable way. Systems thinking is not a panacea. Its application does not mean that resolving problems and weaknesses will come easily or naturally or without overcoming the inertia of the established way of doing things. But it will identify, with more precision, where some of the true blockages and challenges lie. It will help to: 1) explore these problems from a systems perspective; 2) show potentials of solutions that work across sub-systems; 3) promote dynamic networks of diverse stakeholders; 4) inspire learning; and 5) foster more system-wide planning, evaluation and research. And it will increase the likelihood that health system strengthening investments and interventions will be effective. The more often and more comprehensively the actors and components of the system can talk to each other from within a common framework --communicating, sharing, problem-solving - the better chance any initiative to strengthen health systems has. Real progress will undoubtedly require time, significant change, and momentum to build capacity across the system. However, the change is necessary - and needed now. This report therefore speaks to health system stewards, researchers and funders and maps out a set of strategies and activities to harness these approaches, to link them to these emerging opportunities and to assist systems thinking to become the norm in design and evaluation of interventions in health systems. But, the final message is to the funders of health system strengthening and health systems research who will
need to recognize the potential in these opportunities, be prepared to take risks in investing in such innovations, and play an active role in both driving and following this agenda towards more systemic and evidence-informed health development.
Examining how youths in fourteen industrialized societies make the transition to adulthood in an era of globalization and rising uncertainty, this collection of essays investigates the impact that ...institutions working with social groups of youths have upon those youths' abilities to make adult decisions determining their life courses.
Covering both Europe and North America, the book includes case studies, and contains country-specific contributions on conservative, social-democratic, post-socialist, liberal and familistic welfare regimes, as well as data from the GLOBALIFE project.
Filling the gap in the market on the micro effects of globalization on individuals, and taking an empirical approach to the topic, this impressive volume brings the individual and nation-specific institutions back into the discussion on globalization.
This book offers a timely account of health reform struggles in developed democracies. The editors, leading experts in the field, have brought together a group of distinguished scholars to explore ...the ambitions and realities of health care regulation, financing, and delivery across countries. These wide-ranging essays cover policy debates and reforms in Canada, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as separate treatments of some of the most prominent issues confronting policy makers. These include primary care, hospital care, long-term care, pharmaceutical policy, and private health insurance. The authors are attentive throughout to the ways in which cross-national, comparative research may inform national policy debates not only under the Obama administration but across the world.
In Imposing Standards, Martin Hearson shifts the focus of political rhetoric regarding international tax rules from tax havens and the Global North to the damaging impact of this regime on the Global ...South. Even when not exploited by tax dodgers, international tax standards place severe limits on the ability of developing countries to tax businesses, denying the Global South access to much-needed revenue. The international rules that allow tax avoidance by multinational corporations have dominated political debate about international tax in the United States and Europe, especially since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.Hearson asks how developing countries willingly gave up their right to tax foreign companies, charting their assimilation into an OECD-led regime from the days of early independence to the present day. Based on interviews with treaty negotiators, policymakers and lobbyists, as well as observation at intergovernmental meetings, archival research, and fieldwork in Africa and Asia, Imposing Standards shows that capacity constraints and imperfect negotiation strategies in developing countries were exploited by capital-exporting states, shielding multinationals from taxation and depriving nations in the Global South of revenue they both need and deserve.Thanks to generous funding from the Gates Foundation, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories.
The revised and updated second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers an interdisciplinary guide to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation ...related diseases. The authors discuss the pathogens, vectors, and their biology, morbidity and mortality that result from a lack of safe water and sanitation. The text also explores the distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them. The text includes contributions from authorities from the fields of climate change, epidemiology, environmental health, environmental engineering, global health, medicine, medical anthropology, nutrition, population, and public health. Covers the causes of individual diseases with basic information about the diseases and data on the distribution, prevalence, and incidence as well as interconnected factors such as environmental factors. The authors cover access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta, and grey water, plus examples of solutions. Written for students, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs, the second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment isa comprehensive resource to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases.
Western patients are increasingly travelling to developing countries for health care and developing countries are increasingly offering their skills and facilities to paying foreign customers. The ...potential and implications of this international trade in medical services is explored in this book through analysis of the market.
Global Increases in Individualism Santos, Henri C.; Varnum, Michael E. W.; Grossmann, Igor
Psychological science,
09/2017, Letnik:
28, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world ...becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.
Summary
Background
The frequency of eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) occurrence is escalating. Current diagnostic criteria recently proposed for the disease, determine that previous estimates of ...incidence and prevalence are outdated.
Aim
To gauge the current incidence and prevalence of EoE by performing a systematic review of population‐based studies.
Methods
Three electronic databases were searched from their inception dates to September 2018. A total of 2386 documents were screened; 29 studies reported on the prevalence and incidence of EoE in the general population.
Results
The pooled prevalence of EoE was 34.4 cases per 100 000 inhabitants (95% CI, 23.1‐47.5), and was higher for adults (42.2; 95% CI, 31.1‐55) than for children (34; 95% CI, 22.3‐49.2). The pooled EoE incidence rates were 6.6/100 000 person‐years (95% CI, 3‐11.7) in children and 7.7/100 000 (95% CI, 1.8‐17.8) in adults. No differences were found between North American and European studies using varied sources of data (insurance and administrative databases compared to hospital‐bases case series). Subgroup analysis according to risk of bias did not change results significantly. A steady rise in EoE incidence and prevalence rates was observed over time, comparing studies conducted under subsequent definitions for EoE. No significant publication bias was found.
Conclusions
In a systematic review and meta‐analysis, we found a sharp increase, higher than previous estimates, in the incidence and prevalence of EoE in population based studies. Results from studies carried out in developed countries show broad consistency and provide evidence of increasing pooled prevalence and incidence of EoE rates over time.
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