[afro-nets] UNRISD research on commercialisation of health

["Claudio Schuftan" <cschuftan@phmovement.org>]

Cross posted from: PHM Global Secretariat <secretariat@phmovement.org>

	UNRISD Research and Policy Brief 7

	UNRISD Research on Commercialization of Health Care, 2003?2005

	This Research and Policy Brief summarizes findings from two UNRISD projects:

	Commercialization of Health Care: Global and Local Dynamics and Policy Responses, and the health-related research for a broader project, The Social Challenge of Development: Globalization and Inequality.

	These interlinked projects brought together researchers from 20 mainly developing and transitional countries to undertake primary research on the extent and differentiated nature of health care commercialization and globalization, its implications for access and inequality, and the scope for effective policy responses to create inclusive, effective and accountable health systems. 

	Within these themes, topics included the strategies of multinational companies and the health implications of global industrial regulation; the impact of transnationalization of health care corporations on middle-income country health systems; commercialization of the public sector of health care itself and its consequences; international migration of health care staff; public- private interactions and health equity; and experiences of universalization of care in commercializing health systems. 

	Primary research was undertaken in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, the United States and Viet Nam.

	The projects demonstrated that economists and health policy experts can work effectively together within a conceptual framework that treats commercialization of health care as a process to be judged on its merits, rather than a premise on which health policy is built.

	Read the full paper at http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/(httpPublications)/7C04740AD2852A4AC12573E6002E24DC?OpenDocument

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Claudio Schuftan 
mailto:cschuftan@phmovement.org