The newly developed District Health Barometer (DHB) has proven to be an extremely valuable publication, allowing comparisons across districts of a range of health and socio-economic indicators. The DHB received international attention when the Global Health Metrics network invited HST to present the DHB at a meeting in Geneva as an example of an innovative tool using health information.
The 11th edition of the South African Health Review published in 2006 focused on Maternal, Child and
Womens Health (MCWH). The Review served to highlight gains made as well as many of the gaps still
remaining in addressing the health of vulnerable groups in South Africa. We plan to continue to focus on
the gaps and further research needs in MCWH identified by the Review in the coming year.
The South African Equity Gauge placed greater focus on researching and developing community participation for equity, as well as the role of community level governance structures. At the other end of the spectrum HST continued supporting global equity initiatives by hosting the secretariat of the Global Equity Gauge Alliance (GEGA), and supporting the establishment of and publication of the Global Health Watch in 2005/6. Antoinette Ntuli, who as Director of the Healthlink cluster for the past eight years has become synonymous with the SAHR and Equity projects of HST, changed roles in May 2006 to become a senior technical advisor to HST.
HST consolidated the ISDS and Community Development programmes into the District Support and
Community Development cluster in this year under the leadership of Nomonde Bam. Through this
cluster HST continues to be a key partner in national health systems development projects such as the
Integrated Primary Health Care (IPHC) initiative and TB TASC with Management Sciences for Health
(MSH) and University Research Corporation. HST also successfully established a provincial-wide project
in Mpumulanga focusing on HIV prevention and antiretroviral therapy literacy. This work builds on several earlier community development projects in HIV prevention, Male Sexuality and Integrated Nutrition, through which HST has developed successful models of working with and building capacity of local community-based organisations to deliver effective interventions that address priority issues.
The HST Research cluster under the leadership of Irwin Friedman continued its successful and established health systems research projects, particularly the prevention of mother to child transmission
research in partnership with the Medical Research Council and University of the Western Cape, and research on the implementation of the Operational Plan for HIV and AIDS. We also initiated several new TB and TB/HIV research projects. The role of community health workers has been a strong area of focus, and HST was awarded a national contract by the Development Bank of Southern Africa to evaluate the Expanded Public Works Programme during this period.
A review of the external environment for health systems research and development helped HST to gain a deeper understanding of and align our programme with national, regional and global priorities in health systems development. Emanating from the review, key strategic questions were debated within the organisation relating to the organisations role within the southern African region, and to the nature and role of partnerships which have become a predominant mechanism of operation for HST. Both these changes present many opportunities for HST, but also many difficulties and challenges.
The success of current HST regional projects, in particular an SADC project within the framework of
the regional HIV and AIDS strategy to review and build sexually transmitted infection control within the
SADC, strengthened our commitment to working in the region. We therefore plan to build on these successes to enable HST to expand its contribution to health systems development and research, and our network of partnerships within the region. |
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