Institute of Development Studies
Bio
Author Biography
Erica Nelson is a historian and anthropologist of global health, combining longitudinal approaches to understanding change in health systems with participatory, ethnographic, and visual methods. She has worked in this field since receiving her PhD in 2008 (University of Wisconsin-Madison). She was a post-doctoral Research Fellow (University of Amsterdam, Institute for Social Science Research (2010–14)), leading the qualitative component of an adolescent sexual and reproductive health intervention in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. She is currently a researcher in the Accountability for Health Equity programme at IDS. Erica is the executive producer of all multimedia content in this issue.
Institute of Development Studies
Bio
Author Biography
Gerald Bloom is a health system analyst and co-convenor of the IDS Health and Nutrition Cluster. Much of his work has focused on the management of health system change in complex and rapidly changing contexts. He has a particular interest in strategies for improving access to effective and affordable health care in pluralistic health systems, with complex combinations of public and private providers. He leads the IDS participation in the Future Health Systems consortium of health systems research institutes, and he is a co-investigator in the Unequal Voices project in Mozambique and Brazil.
Institute of Development Studies
Bio
Author Biography
Alex Shankland is a social scientist with over two decades' experience of working in Brazil, Peru, Angola and Mozambique as a researcher, NGO manager and social development consultant. He has researched, taught and published extensively on rights, participation and policy, particularly in the health sector, and his doctoral thesis was on representation and health policy in the Brazilian Amazon.
Volume 49
Number 2
Published: May 8, 2018
In July 2017, IDS hosted a workshop on ‘Unpicking Power and Politics for Transformative Change: Towards Accountability for Health Equity’, with the aim of generating dialogue and mutual learning among activists, researchers, policymakers, and funders working towards more equitable health systems and a commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This issue of the IDS Bulletin is based around three principal themes that emerged from the workshop as needing particular attention. First, the nature of accountability politics ‘in time’ and the cyclical aspects of efforts towards accountability for health equity. Second, the contested politics of ‘naming’ and measuring accountability, and the intersecting dimensions of marginalisation and exclusion that are missing from current debates. Third, the shifting nature of power in global health and new configurations of health actors, social contracts, and the role of technology. For the first time in IDS Bulletin history, themes are explored not only in text but also through a selection of online multimedia content, including a workshop video, a photo story and a documentary. This expansion into other forms of communication is explicitly aimed at galvanising larger numbers of people in a movement towards UHC and the linked agenda of accountability for health equity. The articles and multimedia in this IDS Bulletin reflect the fact that while the desired outcome might be the same – better health for all – accountability strategies are as diverse as the contexts in which they have developed.
