January 2010

Conference: Delivering Effective Health Care for All On the 29th of March 2010, CREHS will be co-hosting a conference with COMDIS and TARGETS research programme consortia, all funded by DFID. The aim of the event is to increase dialogue and debate on equitable access to health services, with three key themes: engaging service providers, reducing barriers to access, and scaling up health services and policies. The conference is free to attend and will be held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. If you are interested in attending, please email rebecca.wolfe@lshtm.ac.uk

A new publication, Scaling up in international health: what are the key issues? is now available and free to access and download. The article discusses four pertinent issues in scaling up the coverage of health interventions: the costs of scaling up coverage; constraints to scaling up; equity and quality concerns; and key service delivery issues when scaling up. It also reviews recent progress in scaling up interventions including a considerable increase in the volume of aid, accompanied by numerous new health initiatives and financing mechanisms.

December 2009

CREHS newsletter This issue of our newsletter highlights some recent experiences of CREHS
researchers at national and regional events. As the Consortium’s 5 year programme draws to an end, efforts to disseminate research findings, strengthen relationships with decision makers and inform health policy and practice have intensified.

October 2009

New publications Several new policy briefs, journal articles and PowerPoint presentations are now available from the publications page. These include policy briefs on Reducing User Fees in Kenya, and health policy implementation in South Africa.

August 2009

CREHS researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa have recently published an article in the Lancet on 'The economic situation in South Africa and health inequities'. The article has received widespread interest from the Ministry of Health in South Africa, local and international media including the New York Times. Read the full New York Times article.

July 2009

CREHS newsletter This issue of our newsletter focuses on CREHS research that will be presented at the International Health Economics Association Conference on "Harmonizing Health and Economics".

iHEA Conference Members from CREHS will be attending the International Health Economics Association 7th World Conference on Health Economics in Beijing from 12-15 July. We will be organising a session on challenges to financing health systems in low and middle income countries, and making several oral and written presentations. CREHS materials will be available from the exhibit space during the conference.

Research highlights A new CREHS publication summarises research findings and policy recommendations from studies on health sector reform.

June 2009

Health Policy and Systems Forum, Nigeria A new blog has been set up by researchers from the Health Policy Research Group in Nigeria. It provides a space for researchers to comment on topical health issues in the country.

Writing workshop Members of CREHS have participated in a workshop, hosted by the Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, which focused on writing papers on scaling-up.

March 2009

CREHS newsletter This issue of our newsletter focuses on financial risk protection. It contains research findings from Kenya on the perceived impact of direct facility funding at health centres and dispensaries.

The Journal of International Development has published a special issue on household experiences of ill-health and risk protection mechanisms. The issue is titled "Managing risks: household illness costs, coping strategies and access to social protection". The papers are based on a collaborative research workshop that was hosted by the Consortium for Research on Equitable Health Systems to discuss research findings from several countries in Africa and Asia. Read the press release for more information, or access the special issue online.

January 2009

The International Health Policy Program in Thailand are hosting a workshop from 21 to 23 January for CREHS partners conducting benefit incidence or financing incidence analysis studies as part of CREHS research on financial risk protection.

With technical support from colleagues from IHPP, the study teams will focus on producing preliminary results for three CREHS-funded reserach projects: Benefit and Financing Incidence of public health expenditure in Tamil Nadu and Orissa States; BIA of the Employees State Insurance Scheme in Tamil Nadu, India; and BIA of public health expenditure in Enugu and Anambra States, Nigeria.

December 2008

CREHS newsletter The latest issue of the CREHS newsletter focuses on health worker performance and includes updates about our current research in Kenya, South Africa and Thailand. To subscribe to the CREHS newsletter, please email

September 2008

Special issue of Health Policy and Planning The journal Health Policy and Planning has published a special issue on health policy analysis. It is titled "Future Directions for Health Policy Analysis: a Tribute to the Work of Professor Gill Walt". The edition is based on a workshop organised by the Consortium for Research on Equitable Health Systems; the HLSP Institute; Kings College, London; and the Overseas Development Institute.

August 2008

New CREHS blog We have set up a blog to document our current research on health workers in three countries. We will investigate the attitudes, job preferences and career choices of a cohort of nursing graduates in Kenya, South Africa and Thailand. The blog currently includes pictures from data collection in South Africa and will be used to maintain contact with and get feedback from cohort members.

SHIELD Research Meeting Our Tanzanian and South African partners have been attending a meeting in Zanzibar as part of the EU funded SHIELD (Strategies for Health Insurance for Equity in Less Developed Countries) project. This project is led by the Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town and examines the role of social health insurance in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana.