Sector-wide approaches for health development : Dutch field experiences in international co-operation

This document is developed after a conference in January 1999 in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, organized by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the sector approach in health. It consists of two parts.
Part I - sector-wide approaches for health development - contains three chapters.
In the first chapter an overview of the origin, the concept and the key principles of SWAp is provided. Reference is made to a number of recent publications on international aid and SWAp.
In the second chapter, experiences with SWAp are described on the basis of four components:
a) the process of national health policy development and selected critical issues in health policies;
b) the development of comprehensive resource envelopes for medium-term health plans;
c) the development of common management arrangements;
d) the organization of sector reviews.
Factors that are responsible for successes and failures in the respective countries are identified. Where appropriate, examples are given, which originate from the personal experiences from the authors and/or resource persons.
The last chapter provides observations with regard to a number of prerequisites for the SWAp. Special attention is given to factors, enabling transparency and confidence building between collaborating partners, such as ownership, institutional capacity building and donor co-ordination. Finally, lessons are drawn for the future and questions are identified that will require further critical thinking and debate.
The analysis presented in part I is primarily based on information in 16 country fact-sheets (Part II)

Part II: country fact sheets.
The fact sheets in part II contain factual information on health status, health policy, health services, and the role and involvement of international donors and NGOs in policy development of the following countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Tanzania, Viet Nam, Yemen and Zambia.