Rethinking health sector procurement as developmental linkages in East Africa
This article uses fieldwork in Tanzania and Kenya in 2012–15 to analyse procurement of essential medicines and supplies
Abstract
Health care forms a large economic sector in all countries, and procurement of medicines and other essential commodities necessarily creates economic linkages between a country’s health sector and local and international industrial development. These procurement processes may be positive or negative in their effects on populations’ access to appropriate treatment and on local industrial development, yet procurement in low and middle income countries (LMICs) remains under-studied: generally analysed, when addressed at all, as a public sector technical and organisational challenge rather than a social and economic element of health system governance shaping its links to the wider economy. This article uses fieldwork in Tanzania and Kenya in 2012–15 to analyse procurement of essential medicines and supplies as a governance process for the health system and its industrial links, drawing on aspects of global value chain theory.
This is an output from the ‘Industrial Productivity, Health Sector Performance and Policy Synergies for Inclusive Growth: A Study in Tanzania and Kenya’ Project
Citation
Maureen Mackintosh, Paula Tibandebage, Mercy Karimi Njeru, Joan Kariuki Kungu, Caroline Israel, Phares G.M. Mujinja, Rethinking health sector procurement as developmental linkages in East Africa. Social Science & Medicine, Volume 200, 2018, Pages 182-189,
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Rethinking health sector procurement as developmental linkages in East Africa