KEYSTONE HPSR Initiative// Module 6: Policy Analysis // Slideshow 1: Introducing Health Policy This is the first slideshow of Module 6: Policy Analysis, of the KEYSTONE Teaching and Learning Resources for Health Policy and Systems Research To access video sessions and slides for all modules copy and past the following link in your browser: http://bit.ly/25vVVp1 Module 6: Policy analysis This module focuses on the policy analysis approach to understand who makes policy decisions (power) and how and why these decisions are made (process). As a field primarily preoccupied with understanding decision-making, contemporary policy analysis approaches place actors at the heart of systems, problematize policy content, are attentive to context, and can see implementation as a series of social relationships rather than as an obvious consequence of policymaking. There are 5 slideshows in this module. Module 6: Policy analysis -Module 6 Slideshow 1: Introducing Health Policy -Module 6 Slideshow 2: Policy Approach & Frameworks -Module 6 Slideshow 3: Researching Health Policy -Module 6 Slideshow 4: Group work -Module 6 Slideshow 5: Group work The other modules in this series are: Module 1: Introducing Health Systems & Health Policy Module 2: Social justice, equity & gender Module 3: System complexity Module 4: Health Policy and Systems Research frameworks Module 5: Economic analysis Module 7: Realist evaluation Module 8: Systems thinking Module 9: Ethnography Module 10: Implementation research Module 11: Participatory action research Module 12: Knowledge translation Module 13: Research Plan Writing KEYSTONE is a collective initiative of several Indian health policy and systems research (HPSR) organizations to strengthen national capacity in HPSR towards addressing critical needs of health systems and policy development. KEYSTONE is convened by the Public Health Foundation of India in its role as Nodal Institute of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR). The inaugural KEYSTONE short course was conducted in New Delhi from 23 February – 5 March 2015. In the process of delivering the inaugural course, a suite of teaching and learning materials were developed under Creative Commons license, and are being made available as open access resources. The KEYSTONE teaching and learning resources include 38 videos and 32 slide presentations organized into 13 modules. These materials cover foundational concepts, common approaches used in HPSR, and guidance for preparing a research plan. These resources were created and are made available through support and funding from the Alliance for Health Policy & Systems Research (AHPSR), WHO for the KEYSTONE initiative

1. https://twitter.com/KeystoneHPSR
Building the HPSR CommunityBuilding HPSR Capacity
KEYSTONE
Inaugural KEYSTONE Course on Health Policy and Systems Research 2015
Introducing Health Policy (POL)

2. KEYSTONE
Introducing Health Policy
(POL)
Kabir Sheikh
26 Feb 2015

3. KEYSTONE
Readings
Buse, K., Mays, N. & Walt, G., 2005. Making Health
Policy, Open University Press. (Chapters 1, 2, 7)

4. KEYSTONE
What is Policy?
“Whatever governments choose to do or not to do”
Dye 1984
“The process of public policymaking includes the manner in which problems get conceptualized
and brought to government for solution; governmental institutions formulate alternatives and
select solutions; and those solutions get implemented, evaluated and revised”
Sabatier 1999
“Decisions (in the public and private sector)… taken by those with responsibility for a given area,
e.g. health, education, environment or trade”
Buse et al. 2005
“A series of more or less related activities and their intended and unintended consequences for
those concerned… usually directed towards the accomplishment of some purpose or goal”
Walt 1994
“As commonly used, the term policy is usually considered to apply to something ‘bigger’ than
particular decisions, but ‘smaller’ than general social movements… A second and essential
element in most writers’ use of the term is purposiveness of some kind”
Heclo 1972

5. KEYSTONE
What is Policy?
Decisions with a Purpose

6. KEYSTONE
Types of Policies
Lowi’s classification of policy types (1972)
• Distributive: concerned with the distribution of new resources
• Redistributive: concerned with changing the distribution of existing resources
• Regulatory: concerned with the regulation and control of activities
• Constituent: concerned with setting up of re-organizing institutions

7. KEYSTONE
Examples of Health Policies
In India Other
Distributory /
redistributory
Regulatory
Constituent

8. KEYSTONE
Why do we need Health Policy?
• To achieve health goals and objectives
• To organize and distribute health resources
• To manage existing health systems

9. KEYSTONE
Health Goals
• Health for All
• Good Health as a Right
• Universal Access to Health Care
• High Quality of Health Services
• Good Health Outcomes
• Equity and Justice in Availability of Health Resources

10. KEYSTONE
Health Resources
• Human Resources
– Public sector
– Private sector
– Informal sector
• Material Resources
– Technology
– Medicines
– Infrastructure
• Financial Resources
– Government monies (taxpayers)
– Private monies

11. KEYSTONE
Health Systems
• Service Delivery Institutions
• Administrative Systems
• Financial Systems
• Information Systems
• Regulatory Institutions
• Policymaking Institutions
• Research Institutions

12. KEYSTONE
Stages of Policy
POLICY LIFE
CYCLE
Parsons 1995

13. KEYSTONE
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
APPROPRIATE POLICY
EFFECTIVE PROGRAMMES
IMPROVED HEALTH
MANDATE OF PUBLIC HEALTH
(Slide courtesy Dr KS Reddy)

14. KEYSTONE
Complexity
• Multiplicity of agencies and sectors
• Policy gaps
• Power and conflicts
• Ambiguity and overlaps

15. KEYSTONE
Why Study Health Policy?
• To understand who makes policy decisions
(power)
• To understand how and why these decisions
are made (process)
• To learn about the contents of existing
national and global health policies
• To learn how to plan and make policies
To better understand and
contribute to CHANGE

16. KEYSTONE
The Policy Triangle
CONTENT
ACTORS
PROCESS
CONTEXT
CONTENT
ACTORS
PROCESSCONTEXT
(Walt and Gilson 1994)

17. Open Access Policy
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that we created for the course. While some of the material is in fact original, we have drawn from the large body of knowledge already available under
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