Dear Sunanda,
Great message, thank you [SUPPORT-SYSTEMS (62)]
You make an important point about the influence of small versus large CSOs, and how "Most CSOs rarely get an opportunity to participate in Health Policy making beyond a nominal participation in the occasional Policy dialogue". All: Does this resonate with your experience?
You also highlight the importance of social mobilisation, reminding us that advocacy is not only (or even mostly) about providing (or highlighting) evidence. It is about raising public awareness.
It seems to me that there are at least two types of evidence to consider: The first is what Sunanda describes as the "evidence base for Policy or the findings from Implementation research may not be robust enough to capture the nuanced context-specific picture required for Policy action locally". The second is much more basic, and potentially much more powerful: Taking the example of the Treatment Action Campaign, described earlier by Fatima Suleman (South Africa), it is notable that their 'starting point was to insist that the excessive pricing of essential medicines by multi-national pharmaceutical companies violated human rights'. [https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/article/1/1/14/2188684] TAC did not need to create new evidence, it needed simply to highlight a profoundly compelling piece of evidence (a fact that was plain to see if only one would look). TAC evolved to become one of the most effective CSOs in global health.
All: Please do jump into the discussion by sending an email to hifa@hifaforums.org
Best wishes, Neil
Joint Coordinator, HIFA SUPPORT-SYSTEMS
https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-support-systems-how-can-decision-makin...
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is global coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in official relations with WHO. HIFA brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information. Twitter: @hifa_org neil@hifa.org
