Governing Health Systems ─ For Nations and Communities Around the World

Governing Health Systems: For Nations and Communities Around the World examines the complex relationships between governance and performance in community and national health systems. Each chapter provides an in-depth case study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, on health systems in many countries, including Uganda, Ghana, India, Zambia, Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Palestine, and South Korea. The chapters were written by former Takemi Fellows, who were mid-career research fellows at the Harvard School of Public Health, and their colleagues. This case study approach yields important findings as well as contextual insights about the challenges and accomplishments in addressing governance issues in national and community health systems around the world.

Health policymakers around the world are struggling to address the multiple challenges of governing health systems. These challenges also represent important themes for the research mission of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. This book is based on the program’s thirtieth anniversary symposium held in October 2013 at Harvard. The studies presented in this bookdeep examinations of illustrative examples of health system governance for communities and nationscontribute to our knowledge about global health and assist policymakers in dealing with the complex practical problems of health systems. In short, this book addresses central questions about governing health systemsand why governance matters.

Michael R. Reich is the Taro Takemi Professor of International Health Policy in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he has been on the faculty since 1983. He received his PhD in political science from Yale University in 1981. Dr. Reich has written extensively about the political dimensions of public health policy, health reform, and pharmaceutical policy. He previously served as chair and acting chair of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Population and International Health (19972001) and as director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (2001-05), and continues as Director of the Takemi Program in International Health.

Keizo Takemi is a Member of the House of Councilors of Japan's National Diet and a Senior Fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE). He served as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1998-99 and Senior Vice-Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan in 2006-07. He is an internationally recognized advocate for global health and development, and played an important role in placing health system strengthening at the center of the 2008 G8 summit in Japan. He also was a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health from 2007 to 2009.