The Union's Health Policy Research Unit develops methodologies to analyse the complex processes by which policies are decided, communicated and adapted by various stakeholders, including countries, organisations, administrative levels, professions, sectors and communities.

 

This policy analysis is an essential component of lung health research and programme development, because, in order to scale up policies to meet global health targets, they have to have to be negotiated, adopted, expanded and adapted to many different settings. This requires not only an understanding of the technical content of policies, but also of the way policies and ideas are transferred between those involved in and those affected by their formulation and implementation.

 

Policy transfer analysis reveals different perspectives on what helps or hinders health strategies from being replicated effectively and/or appropriately. It can also identify the most effective ways for different groups to draw lessons from each other's positive and negative experiences. In these ways, it becomes a valuable complement to the standard technical programme data collected by health systems.

The Union is especially committed to supporting changes in policy and practice that

• improve access to care for the poor and marginalised
• address the human resource crisis
• foster collaboration between programmes and sectors that have been operating separately
• expand new approaches, such as the Practical Approach to Lung Health
• strengthen lung health programmes and health systems
• ensure that international funding mechanisms have a positive influence on the scale-up of lung health strategies
• promote advocacy and social mobilisation activities that will be effective in increasing political and social commitment and participation.

Useful documents and links

 

 

Policy Transfer of the DOTS strategy (PDF 559 Ko)