HomeHealth: New Challenges for Development

HomeHealth: New Challenges for Development

Health: New Challenges for Development

La santé : nouveaux défis pour le développement

La salud: nuevos desafíos para el desarrollo

« Revue internationale des études du développement », n°247 (2021-3)

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Published on Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Abstract

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A call for papers on health and development cannot but mention the current pandemic crisis. While international aid in the health sector has been rather stagnant of late, the Covid-19 pandemic could put health and infectious diseasesback at the heart of long-run priorities, particularly in countries of the South. While the African continent remains relatively unaffected, low-income countries share several characteristics: fragile and poorly funded healthcare systems that currently seem to be coping nonetheless, as well as a significant burden due to endemic health problems, including non communicable diseases. An integrated, unified approach to public and environmental health at different scales therefore seems more necessary than ever, especially in the context of climate change. This global crisis therefore provides new opportunities to better interlink the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and rethink the health and development nexus.

Announcement

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Editors

  • Hamidou Niangaly, (hniangaly@icermali.org) physician economist, Malaria research and training center (MRTC), Université des Sciences, des techniques et des technologies de Bamako, Mali.
  • Valéry Ridde, (ridde@ird.fr) public health, Centre population et développement (Ceped), Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) et Université de Paris, Inserm ERL 1244 / Institut de santé et développement, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar.
  • Josselin Thuilliez, (thuilliez@univ-paris1.fr) economist, Centre d’économie de la Sorbonne, CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Context/Introduction

A call for papers on health and development cannot but mention the current pandemic crisis. While international aid in the health sector has been rather stagnant of late, the Covid-19 pandemic could put health and infectious diseases back at the heart of long-run priorities, particularly in countries of the South. The pandemic may also lead to confusion or withdrawal due to the overlap of different old [1,2,3] (e.g. Pasteurism) and new (e.g. social and environmental determinants) paradigms, and has brought about a return to a vertical approach to healthcare (e.g. centered on a disease), thus disregarding the complexity of the challenges involved and the need for a systemic vision of solutions. Lastly, it has exacerbated the role of healthcare in our societies.

The pandemic is now widespread and the risks are particularly salient in resource-limited or middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. While the African continent remains relatively unaffected, low-income countries share several characteristics: fragile and poorly funded healthcare systems that currently seem to be coping nonetheless, as well as a significant burden due to endemic health problems, including noncommunicable diseases. An integrated, unified approach to public and environmental health (the famous One Health concept[1]) at different scales therefore seems more necessary than ever, especially in the context of climate change. This global crisis therefore provides new opportunities to better interlink the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and rethink the health and development nexus.

Firstly, we start from a very simple observation: the current epidemiological transition[2] – which has however come with a tripling of the number of annual epidemic outbreaks since 1980 – is still poorly understood both in the North and the South. The nature of these epidemics is also highly varied. From the opioid crisis[3] to Covid-19, from diseases of despair[4] to obesity, diabetes, Ebola, or even Zika, the complex interweaving of multiple phenomena is added to the biomedical dynamic in which the solutions to these health problems are sought first in the biomedical sphere, without a global vision [4-7]. In many low-income countries, the mortality data are still weakly consolidated[8]. Without a reliable epidemiological surveillance system, it is difficult to estimate a population’s state of health and the evolution of risks, and to assess the effect of interventions to control these risks. When these data exist, they are difficult to link to reliable socio-economic, demographic, or anthropological observations, which are often geographically limited. This structural weakness[2] may come from several aspects: a lack of resources, limited training and information, the organization of healthcare systems, and collaborative and organizational aspects. However, there are also many existing strengths and assets: political will, community mobilization, increasingly trained human resources, and the presence of development partners.

Secondly, the current crisis will lead to economic contraction, which will have an impact on the budgetary decisions of governments, households, and businesses, and possibly on health indicators (“the consequences of the consequences” of the pandemic). In addition, there are security challenges in some areas like the Sahel where health budgets have been reduced in favor of security budgets. Understanding the links between the informal sector and health, insurance or social protection mechanisms, and the resilience of systems therefore remains essential in times of crisis [9-14].

Thirdly, many issues in the context of the current pandemic are not new: the access to care; the role of information in prevention; the complexity of assessments and causality; the vertical approach; the low demand for health services, especially vaccination; the slowdown in the supply of other health services; and the rare use of evidence. Some issues have emerged over the past two decades, such as the need for an approach to the complexity in impact assessment [15,16], the place of gender, the involvement of communities and civil society organizations[17,18], etc. The current global Covid-19 pandemic is therefore not the only factor guiding this call for papers, which is intentionally broad. The Revue internationale des études du développement has not published a special issue on health since 2013; the previous ones on the topic date back to 2006 and 1973 in Revue Tiers Monde.[5]

While broad, the geographical scope to tackle these stakes – the challenges presented below – will be limited to the countries of the Southern Hemisphere located in Africa, Oceania, South Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Some studies may lend themselves to cross-sectional analyses carried out on large samples, which may be supplemented with independent case studies. Other studies may provide a basis to compare different healthcare systems. Lastly, some studies may focus on reflexivity in global health, a crucial component of any form of professional practice that aims at producing social transformations, ranging from teaching to research[20-22]. It allows one to question one’s practices as a researcher, participant, or decision-maker in order to improve them. This call for papers will therefore be structured around three major challenges.

1st line of inquiry: Challenges in dealing with a pandemic crisis

Here, submissions should be original scientific articles. They may be case studies, comparative studies – whether quantitative or mixed – reflections on or summaries of scientific work, or systematic reviews of the scientific literature on major health crises and their management. The main themes are the following:

How should interrelated crises (economic, social, political, and pandemic crises, but also health crises of different types) be dealt with and what is the impact on populations?

  • Unexpected effects during pandemic crises
    • Unexpected effects in the field of health (vaccination, family planning, maternal and child health, and induced effects on the care provided for other diseases such as malaria, as highlighted by the World Health Organization).
    • Damage to the operation of healthcare systems at the national, regional, and local levels, and to their organizational routines.
  • Effects on households, individuals, and the poorest people
    • Preventive measures (social distancing, use of masks, hand washing, and quarantine) and the maintaining of social ties (family and social gatherings such as christenings, funerals, etc.).
    • Demographic effects: fertility and population growth.
  • Economy and health:
    • The inflation of the price of preventive and curative measures due to cost or demand, and social inequalities in access to preventive products and measures.
    • The role of the private and informal sectors in absorbing epidemic and economic shocks.
    • The effects of pandemics on economic development and vice versa: budget allocation, poverty, and inequalities and mortality.

The combined challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda at the international level.

  • Challenges in financing and operating international aid:
    • The role of international organizations such as the Global Fund in the current crisis and in the international funding of health in relation to broader health needs.
    • The environmental challenge: how can SDG 3 on health be reconciled with the SDGs related to environmental issues, namely SDG 6 on water, SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production, SDG 1 on climate, and SDG 15 on land and biodiversity?
    • The institutional challenge: are the health priorities defined in national policies, the health needs, and the agendas of the technical and financial partners (TFPs) in development, particularly during interrelated (epidemic, political, and security) crises, consistent?
  • Coordinating the TFPs’ agendas, the diversity of funding methods, the strengthening of healthcare systems, and the sustainability of interventions.

2nd line of inquiry: Challenges in mobilizing research and evaluation methods

Here, submissions will mainly be original scientific articles, literature reviews, and book reviews. The main themes are:

  1. Epidemiological surveillance and “big data” as an opportunity for cross-fertilization with other disciplines in the field of health.
  2. The evaluation of complex health interventions: methodological considerations.
  • The place of randomized social experiments compared to other types of studies;
  • The geographical level: large-scale studies or narrowly localized case studies;
  • The challenges in using mixed methods to evaluate development actions;
  • The definition and creation/production of health and development indicators.

3rd line of inquiry: Challenges in using science, influencing decision making, collaborating, and teaching

Here, submissions will mainly be original scientific articles, testimonials, articles reflecting on teaching practices or on results from research on teaching, as well as on the assessment of prior learning. Documents on advocacy groups or key figures may shed additional light.

  1. Reflective analyses of the way in which research or interventions are organized in the context of global health, development, and health crises.
  2. Do new types of publications (policy briefs, blogs, videos, etc.) provide an opportunity for local research to be developed and strengthened?
  3. The teaching of global health and of health research taking into account contemporary issues, and international crises and collaborations.
  4. Taking diversity into account (genders, origins, cultures, and disciplines) in collaborations, teaching, and research.

Framework

This issue will favor an interdisciplinary, many-angled approach. Authors from all the social and human sciences may submit papers, including but not limited to: sociology, demography, history, geography, political science, economics, anthropology, etc.

Authors should explore the notion based on a reading of international, national, and local trajectories. The contextualization of empirical studies and original corpuses, and the combination of a sound theoretical approach and fieldwork are expected.

Submission guidelines

The articles (40,000 characters, excluding the abstract and references) in French, English, or Spanish may tackle some of the questions or themes mentioned directly, or through specific case studies. The articles proposed must be original work. They may however have been presented at a conference (with proceedings), as long as they are adapted to the format required by the Revue internationale des études du développement (see the guidelines for authors on the blog for the publications of the IEDES).

The proposals in French, English, or Spanish must present the paper in approximately 4,000 characters (with spaces), 500 words, or one page.

The proposals must include:

  • a title: 70 characters (with the possibility of adding a subtitle),
  • an abstract detailing the research question, the theoretical framework, the fieldwork, and the main results,
  • bibliographical references (not included in the character count).

Each proposal must also include the authors’ first names and last names, their status, and their institutional affiliation, as well as the corresponding author’s email address.

Article proposals must be submitted to:

The editors of this issue:

Publication Calendar

Article proposals must be submitted by November 25, 2020.

  • The authors preselected by the editors and the editorial committee will be notified the week of November 30, 2020.
  • The first draft, following the journal’s guidelines for authors, must be submitted to the four aforementioned email addresses by January 22, 2021.
  • The evaluation process will take a few months – each anonymous article will be submitted to a double blind peer review by two external reviewers who are experts on the topic; no. 247 2021-3 is expected to be published in November 2021.

References

[1] Paul, E., Brown, G.W., & Ridde, V. (2020). COVID-19: time for paradigm shift in the nexus between local, national and global health. BMJ Global Health, 5:e002622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002622

[2] Shamasunder, S., Holmes, S., Goronga, T., Carrasco, H., Katz, E., Frankfurter, R., & Keshavjee, S. (2020). COVID-19 reveals weak health systems by design: Why we must re-make global health in this historic moment. Global Public Health, 15(7), 1083-1089. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2020.1760915

[3] Thuilliez, J., Barré-Sinoussi, F., Dabis, F., Moatti, J.-P., & Yazdanpanah, Y. (2020). The Global Fund in the era of SDGs: time to rethink? The Lancet Public Health 5(e17). https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(19)30249-X

[4] Cutler, D., Deaton, A., & Lleras-Muney, A. (2006). The Determinants of Mortality. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 97-120.

[5] Case, A. & Deaton, A. (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press. https:/doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpr7rb2

[6] Deaton, A. (2003). Health, Inequality, and Economic Development. Journal of Economic Literature, 41, 113-158. https://doi.org/10.1257/002205103321544710

[7] Dupas, P., & Edward M. (2017). Impacts and Determinants of Health Levels in Low-Income Countries. In Duflo, E. & Banerjee, A. (Eds.). Handbook of Field Experiments. North Holland.

[8] Wak, G., Bangha, M., Azongo, D., Oduro, A., & Kwankye, S. (2017). Data Reliability: Comparison between Census and Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) Outputs for Kassena-Nankana East and West Districts, Ghana. Population Review, 56(1), http://doi.org/10.1353/prv.2017.0001

[9] Ruhm, C. J. (2000). Are Recessions Good for Your Health? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(2), 617-650. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300554872

[10] O'Hare, B., Makuta, I., Chiwaula, L., & BarZeev, N. (2013). Income and child mortality in developing countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 106(10), 408-414. http://doi.org/10.1177/0141076813489680

[11] Thuilliez, J. & Berthélemy, J. (2014). Health and Development: A Circular Causality. Revue d'économie du développement, 22(HS01), 109-137. https://doi.org/10.3917/edd.hs01.0109

[12] Pérez-Moreno, S., Blanco-Arana, M. C., & Bárcena-Martín, E. (2016). Economic cycles and child mortality: A cross-national study of the least developed countries. Economics & Human Biology, 22, 14-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2016.02.005

[13] Currie, J., Grenfell, B., & Farrar, J. (2016). Beyond Ebola. Science. 351, 815-816. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8521

[14] Parpia, A. S., Ndeffo-Mbah, M. L., Wenzel, N. S., & Galvani, A. P. (2016). Effects of response to 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak on deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis, West Africa. Emerging infectious diseases, 22(3), 433 -441. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2203.150977

[15] Duflo, E., Glennerster, R., & Kremer, M. (2007) Using randomization in development economics research: A toolkit. Handbook of development economics 4, 3895-3962. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1573-4471(07)04061-2

[16] Duflo, E., & Kremer, M. (2005). Use of randomization in the evaluation of development effectiveness. Evaluating Development Effectiveness 7, 205-231.

[17] Ridde, V., Dabiré, S., & Dagenais, C. (2020, août). L’utilisation de la recherche par les ONG : un appel à actions et à réflexions. Alternatives Humanitaires. http://alternatives-humanitaires.org/fr/2020/03/18/lutilisation-de-la-recherche-par-les-ong-un-appel-a-actions-et-a-reflexions

[18] Ridde, V., Fournier, P., Banza, B., Tourigny, C., & Ouédraogo, D. (2009). Programme evaluation training for health professionals in francophone Africa: process, competence acquisition and use. Human Resources for Health 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-7-3

[19] Alexander, S. A., Jones, C. M., Tremblay, M.-C., Beaudet, N., Rod, M. H., & Wright, M. T. (2020). Reflexivity in Health Promotion: A Typology for Training. Health Promotion Practice, 21(4), 499-509. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839920912407

[20] Ridde V, Pérez D, Robert E. (2020). Using implementation science theories and frameworks in global health. BMJ Global Health, 5:e002269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002269

[21] François, L., Gautier, L., Lagrange, S., Mc Sween-Cadieux E., & Seppey, M. (2018, juin). La pratique réflexive en santé mondiale : expériences et leçons apprises de jeunes chercheur.e.s et intervenant.e.s. http://www.equitesante.org/reflexivite-sante-mondiale

[22] Battat, R., Seidman, G., Chadi, N. et al. (2010). Global health competencies and approaches in medical education: a literature review. BMC Med Educ, 10(94). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-10-94

Notes

[1] An integrated, systemic, and unified approach to public, animal, and environmental health at the local, national, and global scales. It aims to better tackle emerging diseases that may become pandemics. See Turcotte-Tremblay A, Fregonese F, Kadio K, et al. (2020). Global health is more than just ‘Public Health Somewhere Else’. BMJ Global Health, 5(e002545). http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002545

[2] The period of mortality decline which accompanies the demographic transition. It is characterized by improved health, nutrition and organization of health services and a change in the causes of death, with mortality from infectious diseases progressively being replaced by mortality from chronic and degenerative diseases and accidents. See https://www.ined.fr/fr/lexique/transition epidemiologique.

[3] The opioid epidemic refers to the rapid increase in the use of opioids, with and without a prescription, in the United States and Canada since the mid-2010s.

[4] Diseases of despair include deaths related to suicide, poisoning, liver diseases, and alcohol and drug abuse. See Case, A. & Deaton, A. (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press. https:/doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpr7rb2

[5] Atlani-Duault, L. & Vidal, L. (Eds.) (2013). La santé globale, nouveau laboratoire de l'aide internationale ? Revue Tiers Monde, 215(3). https://www.cairn.info/revue-tiers-monde-2013-3.htm ; Biadi-Imhof, A. (Ed.) (2006). La santé mentale dans le rapport nord-sud. Revue Tiers Monde, 187(3). https://www.cairn.info/revue-tiers-monde-2006-3.htm ; Collectif (1973). Politiques et planifications de la santé. Revue Tiers Monde, 53(1). www.persee.fr/issue/tiers_0040-7356_1973_num_14_53.


Date(s)

  • Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Keywords

  • santé, développement, suds

Contact(s)

  • Béatrice Trotier-Faurion
    courriel : revdev [at] univ-paris1 [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Béatrice Trotier-Faurion
    courriel : revdev [at] univ-paris1 [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Health: New Challenges for Development », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, https://doi.org/10.58079/15ek

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