CHORUS Policy Brief: Preparedness of Urban Primary Healthcare Centres of Bangladesh in Managing Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension

ARK Foundation’s CHORUS Policy Brief identifies key gaps and policy recommendations to potentially play a role in strengthening the integration of NCD management within the urban primary health care system.

Presentation: Opportunities and threats to linking informal healthcare providers into the formal urban health system in Nigeria

In Nigeria, informal healthcare providers (IHPs) account for a significant proportion of health service delivery in underserved urban areas. In the absence of more consistent and structured linkages between informal and formal providers, the consequence of fragmented and poor quality of care will be borne by service users​. The CHORUS Nigeria team present findings from stakeholder consultations on linking the informal healthcare providers into the formal urban health system in Nigeria.

CHORUS Presentation: An introduction and initial findings from needs assessment in Nepal and Nigeria

CHORUS seeks to “Enhance capability to generate and use high quality research evidence to inform and influence multisectoral health system interventions, policy and programme decisions and implementation at local, national and international levels to improve the health of the urban poor and slum dwellers” (outcome)

Paper: Conceptual framework for systemic capacity strengthening for health policy and systems research

Capacity strengthening in global health has often been understood as a responsibility of those based in high-income countries (HICs) as part of their partnership arrangements with those based in LMICs. For example, encouraged by funders, principal investigators of international projects who are based in HICs may assume responsibility for capacity strengthening of LMIC-based collaborators, with…

Paper: Strengths, disconnects and lessons in local and central governance of the response to the first wave of COVID-19 in Ghana

The general objective of this paper is to explore governance, coordination and implementation actors, structures and processes, facilitators, and barriers within local government and between central and local government during the first wave of Ghana’s COVID-19 response and lessons for effective responses to health security threats in Ghana. Read the full article here!

CHORUS Paper: The Role of Contextual Factors in Private Sector Engagement: A Case Study of Private Sector Contribution to COVID-19 Mitigation in Nigeria

The CHORUS team at the University of Nigeria undertook a descriptive case study to explore the contextual factors that contributed to the private sector engagement and contribution to COVID-19 mitigation in Nigeria. This paper examines these contextual factors with a view to identifying progress and learning opportunities for enhancing public-private partnership in advancing healthcare not just in Nigeria, but also in related countries in Africa and other developing countries.

CHORUS Paper: The Role of the Private Sector in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences From Four Health Systems

We assess the way in which the private sector has acted in response to COVID-19 and seek to understand the Government’s reaction to this response. We present findings of a policy and media review of the private sector response to the pandemic and government’s interaction with this response in urban settings in four LMICs: Ghana, Nigeria, Nepal and Bangladesh. The private sector response was identified as a major theme a larger study undertaken in each country on the COVID-19 response in urban areas.
We focus on two related questions.

1. Who are the private sector actors (profit and not for profit) who have engaged in the COVID-19 first wave response and what was their role?

2. How have national and sub-national governments engaged in, and with the private sector response and what have been the effects of these engagements?

Paper: “Domains of deprivation framework” for mapping slums, informal settlements, and other deprived areas in LMICs to improve urban planning and policy: A scoping review

This paper reviewed conceptualizations of urban deprivation in LMIC cities, integrated key concepts from social and physical sciences, and developed a novel Domains of Deprivation Framework that can support multi-disciplinary global deprived area mapping efforts. Our domains aim to be inclusive of issues that define deprivation from the household-to-city-level, and this is reflected in the classification of domains within a simple spatial hierarchy (i.e., household- area- area connect level). We also, importantly, link dozens of indicator groups to each domain based on the literature review and local workshops. Therefore, our novel IDEAMAPS Domains of Deprivation Framework departs from existing frameworks that are not holistic enough to reflect household and area-level domains of deprivation in LMIC cities.

CHORUS Paper: Stakeholders’ perspectives and willingness to institutionalize linkages between the formal health system and informal healthcare providers in urban slums in southeast, Nigeria

The widely available informal healthcare providers (IHPs) present opportunities to improve access to appropriate essential health services in underserved urban areas in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, they are not formally linked to the formal health system. This study was conducted to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders about institutionalizing linkages between the formal health systems and IHPs, as a strategy for improving access to appropriate healthcare services in Nigeria.

Paper: Examining the roles of stakeholders and evidence in policymaking for inclusive urban development in Nigeria – findings from a policy analysis

This study examined the extent to which stakeholders are involved and evidence considered in urban development policies and strategies in Nigeria. With a high urban population growth rate in Nigerian cities, sustainable urban development is critical and should be hinged on viable policies that are evidence-based and consider stakeholders’ inputs and interests.