National Politics' Role in Developing Primary Health Care Policy for Maternal Health in Papua New Guinea: A Qualitative Document Analysis.

Politics is one of the critical factors that influence health policy agendas. However, scholarly efforts, especially in low- and middle-income countries, rarely focus on how politics influence health policy agenda-setting. We conducted a qualitative document review to examine the factors that led to developing the free primary health care policy for maternal health in Papua New Guinea.

A scoping review considering the processes involved in changing abortion laws in low- and middle-income countries.

Providing legal and safe abortion is promoted as one of the key global strategies for reducing maternal mortality. Following the landmark 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are shifting towards more liberal abortion legislation. Whilst the existing literature has predominantly focused on agenda setting and individual country contexts, there is a need to understand the universal policy process of changing abortion laws.

Evaluation of policies for free maternal healthcare in low/middle-income countries: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Improving maternal health remains a health priority at the global and national levels. As part of the global strategy, many low/middle-income countries (LMICs) have implemented free primary healthcare policies for different service packages including maternal health. Free maternal healthcare policies aim to improve maternal health by removing the financial burden of accessing maternal healthcare services.

Political Priority for Abortion Law Reform in Malawi: Transnational and National Influences.

In July 2015, Malawi's Special Law Commission on the Review of the Law on Abortion released a draft Termination of Pregnancy bill. If approved by Parliament, it will liberalize Malawi's strict abortion law, expanding the grounds for safe abortion and representing an important step toward safer abortion in Malawi. Drawing on prospective policy analysis (2013-2017), we identify factors that helped generate political will to address unsafe abortion.

Behind the scenes: International NGOs' influence on reproductive health policy in Malawi and South Sudan.

Global health donors increasingly embrace international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as partners, often relying on them to conduct political advocacy in recipient countries, especially in controversial policy domains like reproductive health. Although INGOs are the primary recipients of donor funding, they are expected to work through national affiliates or counterparts to enable 'locally-led' change. Using prospective policy analysis and ethnographic evidence, this paper examines how donor-funded INGOs have influenced the restrictive policy environments for safe abortion and family planning in South Sudan and Malawi.

Malawi and Millennium Development Goal 4: a Countdown to 2015 country case study.

Background: Several years in advance of the 2015 endpoint for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Malawi was already thought to be one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa likely to meet the MDG 4 target of reducing under-5 mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Countdown to 2015 therefore selected the Malawi National Statistical Office to lead an in-depth country case study, aimed mainly at explaining the country's success in improving child survival.

Methods: We estimated child and neonatal mortality for the years 2000-14 using five district-representative household surveys.

Does identity shape leadership and management practice? Experiences of PHC facility managers in Cape Town, South Africa.

In South Africa, as elsewhere, Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities are managed by professional nurses. Little is known about the dimensions and challenges of their job, or what influences their managerial practice. Drawing on leadership and organizational theory, this study explored what the job of being a PHC manager entails, and what factors influence their managerial practice.