Question
In your opinion, what are the current challenges facing African health systems?
My background is in sociology but I am interested in writing a grant for research in the challenges facing African Health systems. What do you think are the current current challenges(areas) that need to be addressed?
All Answers (17)
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African Health Systems---wow very ambitious. It is better to focus on a specific country. -
To start with, you need to narrow your scope coz it seems wide. Probably you can narrow it down to regional countries like say three countries from West Africa or any part from Africa.
However, back to your question, few challenges i can state here:
- corruption
- poverty
- lack of finance
- poor funding of health care systems
- very few hospitals and clinics
- lack of adequate medical personnel -
The biggest challenge to African Health Systems is financial constraint which has burdened the health system. Human Resource is in short supply. The available human resources are overburdened. In addition to these factors I personally think that lack of a reliable data is a big trouble. This has originated from the poor infrastructure in health systems. What are the pressing health needs of the population? How can these be achieved? Is our health system culturally appropriate? There are a lot more questions that should be answered. -
Thanks Guys for your comments.I,m getting an idea of which direction i should take.This grant application should be for a country ,Kenya.
God bless you -
the biggest challenge to african health system is denial of corporate world the access to patented drugs and medicines especially Aidsrelated one. how unfortunate it is that universal declaration of human rights relating to access to wholesome health and hygeine is denied to a sizable number of human population. the africans are brave , intelligent and energetic but for American factories and european mines. poverty, affliction, denudation of natural resources is the direct result of exploitation by the colonising world. why should those countries not bail out the miserable plight of africans at this stage. so to me the proper subject of reserch must be to determine the responsibility of nations vis-a-vis the miserable conditions of African which could be emperical as well non-emperical.but the research should be monitored at the international level by employing the techniques applicable in the most standard universities of the world..... -
A good place to start might be to see what other studies taking place right now in this field- I am currently supporting academic groups in their gathering in of evidence of all sort of issues regarding development, including health systems in Africa, and other places - take a look here- http://www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/SystematicReviews.aspx#Health and Nutrition
If you are writing a research grant it might be a good way of identifying the gaps in the knowledge base and main authors of other work relervant to your topic. All the best - and good luck! -
I think it is very good topic, but need to be narrow it in particular country or sup-country.
the main challenges in addition to Yankay mentioned, the design of health system and they way of monitoring and implementing as well as a weak of health infrastructure in African countries. all the best-and good luck. -
Yankay mentioned these as some of the challenges facing African Health Systems
- corruption
- poverty
- lack of finance
- poor funding of health care systems
- very few hospitals and clinics
- lack of adequate medical personnel
I wish to add that even with these in place, our care givers should also work on their attitude towards patients which if not worked on will mean the clients' health seeking behavior will still be low. We should also appreciate that the care givers are doing their best given what they are undergoing like the challenges Yankey mentioned which leads to bad attitude not to mentioned low morale at their work places.
- Bad Infrastructure (Road network)
- Communication
- Hospital Equipments are also some of the challenges
Note: Each country is unique in its own way and what is lacking in one does not necessarily mean is lacking in the other. Good luck. -
Teddy, narrowing your topic to sub-regional or regional dynamics in the health sector is a must i think. Secondly, whiles all the factors listed above are significant, i think you need to look at external factors...i.e the role of the donor community and their 'so-called' unconditional health care aid to Africa. I believe reconciling these supply driven aid package with the complex domestic health policies and demands, will offer you a balanced and credible explanations of the major challenges facing our health system in Africa. The question is not about what the challenges are...our enlightened contributors have listed them all, but rather your concern should be why are these challenges so chronic and how to address them. As a sociologist, kindly look at the diverse and dissimilar health systems, and the individual regional dynamics. -
Mr. Aswani you have a big challenge coming you way as to what may or may not be relevant to your research. Please read other works so that you can apply your energy to areas where gaps in knowledge exist. My suggestions are not likely to be unique however, do confirm first if others have covered these issues:
1. Ethical problems - health care providers in Africa have yet to learn what it means to work as a professional and many of them take their work for granted. Sometimes patients are treated by guess work and negligence is very high.
2. Low efficiency in service delivery and management may be some of the most obvious problems for a first time visitor to health centres and general hospitals.
3. Corruption and misuse of resources. Doctors divert drugs and spend more time in private practice when they are supposed to be working in public hospitals.
4. Lack of modern diagnostic devises may be due to poverty and low prioritization of health issues by Government in its budgetary allocation.
5.The brain drain - continuous loss of personnel to foreign countries denies Africa qualified practitioners. -
I think, Africa and other developing nations have been facing similar kind of problems. Mostly malnutrition/ lack of food security, lack of health care facilities and services, population growth/ no proper family planning practices, poor reproductive, maternal and child health status (high maternal and child mortality rate), low level of health awareness and other problems. The problems are mostly due to poor management, lack of resources and lack of resource mobilization etc. -
Technological advancement has dealt a great blow to development of modern medical practices in Africa coupled with dependency syndrome, whereby Africa has been denied advancement by the advanced world so that they will gain access to African resources through their huge bargaining power. There are enough resources in Africa but she still remains poor hence these health challenges which manifest themselves in low life expectance, high martenal mortality, high infant mortality, poor health systems, malnutrition, high spread of communicable diseases and so on.
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A new challenge for many national health care systems are new diseases in new areas due to a changing climate - malaria outbreaks in new places, more ecologically coupled diseases like Rift Valley Fever and Encephalitis, and new diseases like the bird flu (H1N1) and dengue fever that previously were not big problems. As the climate changes, these diseases will become more problematic, particularly as the national governments are pressured to respond to these global challenges. This is challenging while dealing with basic health care expenses. -
My friend Mchasisi Gas, you can choose to remain in the mode of looking at others as the source of Africa's problems which i think is a scape goat or innovatively come up with solutions that add value to those so called African resources. Our health is the number one wealth that God gave us and we owe it to ourselves to set up efficient and effective health services which calls upon all involved to provide selfless service.
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You dead right Leonard, in as much as we try to find lasting solutions to our ills here stands this stumbling block of lack of resources to implement these solutions which is of course non other than our cruel past. I dont deny that corruption which is associated with pleasing the would be powers has played a huge role in robbing Africa of her precious resources which when rightly used could go a long way to solve Africa's problems.
That aside, Aswani may also consider cultural and traditional fundamentals. Some parts of Africa still rely on traditional medicines which need to be developed to levels of modern world. -
I think current challenge in the health system research is mainly of human resource management & capacity building to serve people as well as lack of scientific performance analysis. Similarly next issue is we never reach in the target in most of the developing countries but expense most of the resources/ funds. Therefore, there should be some research on these areas as well.
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African governments and their view that corruption is a right of holding office.
