RESOURCES
recent publications
Heroes on Strike: Trends in Global Health Worker Protests During COVID-19
April 2022 • Sorcha A. Brophy, Veena Sriram, Haotian Zong, Chloei Andres, Maria Paz Mawyin, and Narayanan GL
“We argue that the frequent characterization of health workers as heroes of the pandemic obscures the fact that health workers themselves describe the challenges they face during this time as violations of their rights as workers, highlighting the obligations of their employers to provide working conditions and remuneration that justify the risk they assume.”
Recontextualizing Physician Associations: Revisiting Context, Scope, Methodology
April 2022 • Sorcha A. Brophy & Veena Sriram
“Physician associations, in particular the American Medical Association (AMA), were long seen as a dominant force in health policy, using their symbolic power, access to politicians, financial resources, and collective strength to shape policy in their interest. However, with the rise of other policy actors (such as the hospital, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries) and tectonic shifts in the political economy of the health sectors of many countries, researchers have argued that the power of physicians has diminished, and that they are less relevant to policy change (Peterson 2001; Stevens 2001; Stone 1998). In this special section, we caution against overstating the loss of physicians' collective power (Timmermans and Berg 2003; Timmermans and Oh 2010) and draw attention to a casualty of this assumption—the scholarly neglect of physician associations. We argue that the techniques used by physician associations to affect policy change have evolved significantly...”
A Draconian Law: Examining the Navigation of Coalition Politics and Policy Reform by Health Provider Associations in Karnataka, India
August 1, 2021 • Arima Mishra, Maya Annie Elias, Veena Sriram
“A comprehensive picture of provider coalitions in health policy making remains incomplete because of the lack of empirically driven insights from low- and middle-income countries. The authors examined the politics of provider coalitions in the health sector in Karnataka, India, by investigating policy processes between 2016 and 2018 for developing amendments to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act. Through this case, they explore how provider associations function, coalesce, and compete and the implications of their actions on policy outcomes. They conducted in-depth interviews, document analysis, and nonparticipant observations of two conferences organized by associations. They found that provider associations played a major role in drafting the amendments and negotiating competing interests within and between doctors and hospital associations. Despite the fragmentation, the associations came together to reinterpret the intentions of the amendments as being against the interests of the profession, culminating in a statewide protest and strike. Despite this show of strength, provider associations only secured modest modifications. This case demonstrates the complex and unpredictable influence of provider associations in health policy processes in India. The authors' analysis highlights the importance of further empirical study on the influence of professional and trade associations across a range of health policy cases in low- and middle-income countries.”
other resources
The Health Worker Protests & Proposals Pilot Project
An open-source initiative that started in May 2020, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It monitored, collected, and shared media reports of health worker protests and proposals around the world—coronavirus-related and beyond. The collection of these reports helped raise awareness of accountability challenges in the health sector, highlighting the needs and proposals of health workers.
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
A disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project. ACLED collects the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events around the world. The ACLED team conducts analysis to describe, explore, and test con ict scenarios, and makes both data and analysis open for free use by the public.
Public Services International - Behind The Mask
An online documentary featuring the world’s frontline public service workers created by Public Services International, the global union federation for public sector employees. This project links the personal struggles of their members with the political decisions which exacerbated the Covid-19 Crisis.