An Introduction to Health Planning in Developing Countries

This book is the second edition of a successful and well-respected text aimed at planners and health policy makers involved in planning for health in developing countries. This book is also highly relevant for Central and Eastern Europe where many countries are now trying to develop new, more flexible and decentralized approaches to health care under clear resource constraints. This edition continues to be based on the premise that the State has a key role to play in the health sector and that planning is an important mechanism for carrying out this role. The book begins by explaining the importance of health planning, stressing the balanced combination of technique and judgements necessary for successful planning. It outlines the policy context internationally within which health planning operates including recent health sector reform policies and longer- standing policies of Primary Health Care. The book then looks at each of the key stages in the Planning Spiral from the Situational Analysis through to Evaluation. Each of these is dealt with in a chapter, which introduces key concepts and techniques.
The book ends with an analysis of why planning has not always been successful and discusses how it can be strengthened. The book overall focuses on public sector planning, but stresses the need for an approach to planning that looks at all sectors and organisations involved in health. In addition to the main text, the book also contains a number of exercises to practice techniques and an extensive bibliography for each chapter. The book also provides a list of key web-sites.