Unpicking Power and Politics for Transformative Change: Workshop Video
Sophie Marsden, Karine Gatellier and Sarah King
In our effort to share with a broader audience the kinds of cutting-edge thinking and debates that took place during the July workshop, we asked select participants to speak on camera about their understandings of accountability, the potential for mutual learning, and priorities for future accountability for health equity work. Included in this short film are: Fatima Lamishi Adamu, Aggrey Aluso, Walter Flores, Luis Eduardo Fonseca, Asha George, Ian Harper, Elizabeth Ekirapo Kiracho, Desta Lakew, Vera Schattan Coelho, and Abhay Shukla.
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Enabling Community Action for Maternal Health: A Photo Story
Vaishali Zararia, Renu Khanna and Sophie Marsden
Here, Vaishali Zararia describes a collaborative project between three non-governmental organisations (SAHAJ, ANANDI, and KSSS) in Gujarat, India, working together to promote community action and social accountability for improved maternal health services. Through a visual depiction of the material realities of a Community Scorecard process, this photo story captures both the challenges and possibilities for improved accountability relationships at the local level. Similar to the 'cycles of accountability' described by Flores and Hernández in this IDS Bulletin, the achievements of SAHAJ, ANANDI, and KSSS were made possible through multi-stakeholder and multi-level engagement within the health system, and an adaptive, long-term approach to change.
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Holding a Health System to Account: Voices from Mozambique (A Documentary)
Denise Namburete and Erica Nelson
In this documentary we hear directly from health service users and providers in the Mozambican capital city of Maputo on accountability gaps and challenges. Filmed as part of the Vozes Desiguais/Unequal Voices Economic and Social Research Council–Department for International Development (ESRC–DFID)-funded research project on the politics of accountability within multi-level health systems in Brazil and Mozambique, these interviews capture the frustration and injustice of health inequities as they are experienced in day-to-day life. Common problems such as unacceptably long waiting times, frequent drug stock-outs, and illicit charges for public health service delivery are described by residents of Maputo. The film explores what strategies are possible to ensure that these issues are comprehensively dealt with by those with the power to remedy them. In a country such as Mozambique, with a post-independence history of national health system creation, and the promise made to achieve 'health for all', what would health management strategies and an enabling policy environment need to look like to have more meaningful accountability on health user rights and entitlements?
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© 2018 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2018.132
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence,
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The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 49 No. 2 March 2018: 'Accountability for Health Equity: Galvanising a Movement for Universal Health Coverage'; the Introduction is also recommended reading.