The need to strengthen the field of health policy and systems research has been widely recognized among public health research organizations. This is especially so in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. Moreover, there is also an increasing interest in the development of new research models with greater capacity to influence policy agendas and health reforms. This publication argues th...

That public health policy and practice should be evidence based is a seemingly uncontroversial claim. Yet governments and citizens routinely reject the best available evidence and prefer policies that reflect other considerations and concerns. The most common explanations of this paradox emphasise scientific disagreement, the power of 'politics', or the belief that scientists and policymakers l...

The utility of the life-course framework to address disparities in child health is based on its ability to integrate the science of child development with the requirements of effective and just public policy. I argue that the life-course framework is best assessed in a historical context and through 4 essential observations. First, early genetic and environmental interactions are complex and in...

BACKGROUND Addressing the limitations of existing Local Wellness Policies (LWPs) and promoting their implementation remain priorities for health and education agencies. One gap has been the absence of a standard assessment to support LWP revision. During planning for an initiative to improve school nutrition and physical education policy, the Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT) was evalua...

The paper reflects upon the legal interpretations of the right to health and its consequences. In order to exemplify the complexity of the theme and its emotional appeal, it analyzes the Supreme Court's decision in a public litigation against the State of Alagoas demanding that medication be supplied. Different interpretations, by both judges and health professionals, of the notion of integral ...

This work deals with understanding equity in health within the framework of an ethical-political discussion of justice; current debate on this issue is reviewed and the implications in defining public policy and organising health service systems are shown. The debates historicity and how it is carried out in contemporaneous societies is presented so that one or another positions predominance is...

Policy capacity focuses on the managerial and organizational abilities to inform policy decisions with sound research and analysis, and facilitate policy implementation with operational efficiency. It stems from a view of the policy process that is rational and positivistic, in which optimal policy choices can be identified, selected, and implemented with objectivity. By itself, however, policy...

In the Canadian context, the persistence and growth of Aboriginal health and social inequity signals that we are at a critical public health policy juncture; current policy reflects an historic relationship between Aboriginal people and Canada that fails the contemporary health needs of Canada's Aboriginal peoples. In this review, we highlight the need for healthy public policy that recognizes ...

This book is about New Labour’s health policy and the impact political economy has on public policy. As in other areas of the public sector, reforms based on ideas taken from the market cause reforms in the way the provision of the services is organised. When Labour came into power in 1997, the internal market was officially abandoned but important aspects of the reforms were carried out under ...