Some Latin American and Caribbean countries face certain socio-political conditions that hinder people’s ability to live in a healthy environment and access health services that meet their needs. In addition, countries in the region face important challenges to improve quality, equity and results in health due, in part, to limits on financial resources, infrastructure and a qualified health workforce. The unequal distribution of income and subsequent health system fragmentation make it even harder to reach efficient and equitable coverage. These issues are even more acute for vulnerable or marginalized populations, including indigenous groups and ethnic minorities, as well as migrants and refugees.
In spite of these many challenges, the region is making progress towards the integration of innovative structures in its public health reforms aimed at strengthening governance, participation, and access, and to better respond to the growing epidemiological and demographic demands. There is value in sharing and disseminating these efforts with the international community, and in collecting experiences and perspectives about the challenges Latin America and the Caribbean still face. This information can paint a more complete picture about the situation in the region, therefore advancing in the path towards achieving health systems with more equity and better quality.
Open Call: Share Your Articles!
The International Journal for Equity in Health is preparing a special issue with this goal in sight. This call for papers seeks to compile articles that reflect the complexity of the region and the mechanisms by which its health systems have faced the challenges mentioned above. The purpose is to facilitate global understanding and debate about regional realities and the initiatives and policies that have been implemented to reach greater equity within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.
This prestigious journal aims to publish a variety of articles that capture, from a critical and multidisciplinary perspective, the challenges facing the region and its health systems in their pursuit of equity. The journal will accept article proposals that draw from anthropology, epidemiology, health economics, health policy, and analysis that use investigative and analytical social science methods. Experiences and lessons learned from, but not limited to, the following topics are welcome:
- Inequities in health resulting from the epidemiological transition or that particularly affect vulnerable groups, including indigenous groups, economic migrants or refugees, and older adults.
- Barriers to accessing health services such as limitations of the public health system, exclusion, discrimination due to gender, disability or other conditions, or racism.
- Health system financing and policies, including distribution and pricing of medications, public-private partnerships, performance of social security institutions, and impact of fiscal policies.
- Health system governance, such as participation of the community in decision-making processes, and impact of the political and economic context on health systems.
How Can You Participate?
Send a structured abstract with maximum 500 words in a Word document to [email protected] by April 21, 2019. Abstracts in English, Spanish and Portuguese will be accepted. Financing for selected manuscripts will be available, and the editors can support authors in the development of guest manuscripts. For more details, please see here.
The Special Edition will be launched at the Health Systems Research Symposium taking place in Dubai in 2020 as part of the efforts of Health Systems Global to build a global health community that is more inclusive and representative. Help us highlight the variety of experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean in this important forum by participating in the Special Edition!
Authors and co-editors of the Special Issue: Pablo Gaitán Rossi, Daniel Maceira, Daniela C. Rodríguez, Ana Lorena Ruano.
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