Strengthening Public Health Systems : Policy Ideas from a Governance Perspective

Khemani, Stuti ; Chaudhary, Sarang ; Scot, Thiago

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PUBLIC HEALTH;    GOVERNMENT POLICY;    POLITICIANS;    BUREAUCRATS;    LOCAL GOVERNMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9220
RP-ID  :  WPS9220

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Public health systems that are capableof disease surveillance and action to prevent and manageoutbreaks require trustworthy community-embedded publichealth workers who are empowered to undertake their tasks asprofessionals. Economic theory on incentives and norms ofagents tasked with performing activities that society caresabout yield direct implications for how to recruit andmanage frontline health workers to promote trustworthinessand professionalism. This paper provides novel evidence froma survey of public health workers in Bihar, India'spoorest state, that supports the insights of economic theoryand taken together yields ideas that can immediately be putto work in policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Theseideas address problems of governance and trust that havebedeviled health policymakers. Managing the current andpreventing future pandemics requires going beyond technicalhealth policies to the political institutions that shapeincentives and norms of health workers tasked withimplementing those policies.