Eelco Jacobs

• Research article

Third party monitoring (TPM) is used in development programming to assess deliverables in a contract relationship between purchasers (donors or government) and providers (non-governmental organisations or non-state entities). In this paper, we draw from our experience as public health professionals involved in implementing and monitoring the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) and the Essential […]

• Research article

Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities in fragile and conflict-affected settings may be severe due to reduced access and use of healthcare, as happened during the 2015 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak. Achieving a balance between short-term emergency response and addressing long-term health needs is particularly challenging in fragile and conflict-affected settings such as […]

• Research article

In fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) such as South Sudan, where health needs are immense, resources are scarce, health infrastructure is rudimentary or damaged, and government stewardship is weak, adequate health intervention priority-setting is especially important. There is a scarcity of research examining priority-setting in FCAS and the related political economy. Yet, capturing these dynamics […]

• Report

Accessing and using healthcare service remains a challenge for South Sudanese people, with geographic coverage estimates varying from 29% to 44% of the population living within 5km of a healthcare facility (Integrity Global, 2018; Macharia, Odera, Snow, & Noor, 2017; Ministry of Health, 2015b). Even reaching a health facility, however, does not guarantee access to […]

• Research article

Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is an important focus of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and is embedded in various policy frameworks and strategies, including the Regional Strategy for SRHR in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 2015–2021. As part of an in-depth review to reflect on the current strategy and for Sida to develop recommendations to the Swedish government […]

• Research article

Community health workers (CHWs) are crucial for increasing access to health services to communities. Due to decades of conflict and under-funding, access to health care in South Sudan remains severely limited. To improve equitable access to healthcare, the government has introduced “the Boma Health Initiative (BHI)”, a strategy to harmonise community health programmes across the […]

• Policy Brief

Despite the conflict in South Sudan, community health programmes such as integrated community case management for communicable diseases and neglected tropical diseases have been successful. The Health Pooled Fund (HPF) is now the single largest provider of life-saving healthcare in 80 per cent of the country, supporting at least 800 health facilities. KIT, a consortium […]

Study Report Access and use of health services remain limited in South Sudan. It is estimated that only 44% of the population in South Sudan live within reach of health facilities and have consistent access to primary care services. This study was undertaken to investigate access to and utilisation of health care services in the […]

The priority-setting process in the context of the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) is challenged by data limitations, minimal stewardship of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and competing interests among donors, HPF management, MoH, local authorities and implementing partners. A study was initiated to analyse the priority-setting occurring at the national and local level of the […]

This document summarizes the findings from the mobile migrant study which was conducted at the request of Suriname’s Malaria Program and looked into the ASM population’s demography, movements, health perceptions, and healthcare seeking behaviours (the full report is linked below).

Assessment of mobile migrant population size, demographics, turnover, movement, and priority health needs in Suriname. Suriname continues to receive imported malaria cases from other endemic countries in the region, especially French Guiana. Imported cases are mostly linked to mobile migrant populations who are active in remote artisanal and small-scale gold mining areas and travel between […]

• Research article

An Analysis of Health-Financing Policy Integration in Three Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings As performance-based financing (PBF) is increasingly implemented across sub-Saharan Africa, some authors have suggested that it could be a ‘stepping stone’ for health-system strengthening and broad health-financing reforms. However, so far, few studies have looked at whether and how PBF is aligned to […]

Despite overwhelming interest in the role of social capital in international development, attention to the interplay of community-based development aid with local collective-action dynamics in Central Asia and particularly Tajikistan has remained limited. This paper investigates donor-induced local institutions for collective action in rural Tajikistan with a focus on the introduction of a community-based health […]

Performance based financing (PBF) has been increasingly implemented across low and middleincome countries, including in fragile and humanitarian settings, which present specific features likely to require adaptation and to influence implementation of any health financing programme. However, the literature has been surprisingly thin in the discussion of how PBF has been adapted to different contexts, […]

Health reform is a fundamentally political process. Yet, evidence on the interplay between domestic politics, international aid and the technical dimensions of health systems, particularly in the former Soviet Union and Central Asia, remains limited. Little regard has been given to the political dimensions of Tajikistan’s Basic Benefit Package (BBP) reforms that regulate entitlements to […]