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HSRC Annual Report 2016/17
should include practical, financial and symbolic acts; and (4) there is something for everyone to do – individuals
and communities, alongside government and institutional efforts.
•
Secondly, the HSRC, in partnership with the Restitution Foundation, the Castle of Good Hope and 12 civil society and
academic partners, brought together 520 participants from over 46 institutions and organisations across multiple
sectors for an inaugural conference on restitution.
•
Thirdly, the project has commenced with a series of seminars and dialogues on restitution with faith communities,
universities and business people, along with various intergenerational and intersectoral dialogues at historically
significant sites in Cape Town.
The restitution project has provide much-needed impetus on social transformation based on dialogical engagement. It
is likely to develop multiple new research projects around dialogue, social cohesion and practical ways of accelerating
change and increasing redress.
Population Health, Health Systems and Innovation (PHHSI)
“The choices that women make have huge impact on families, on communities and on nations.
Being able to provide an enabling environment for them to exercise their rights and make choices
in their lives is crucial. It is at the heart of human development!”
Nigerian physician, and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, Babatunde Osotimehin
PHHSI profile
The programme seeks to use social, economic, behavioural and human sciences to generate evidence for health
policy, health systems, health promotion, and to enhance population health impact. The key research pillars are Health
Economics and Health Systems; Health Promotion; Disease Prevention and Behavioural Sciences; Nutrition and Food
Security; and Social and Behavioural Epidemiology.
Research highlights
Over the reporting period, PHHSI implemented several research projects that addressed the major burden of disease,
i.e. non-communicable diseases (NCDs), child and maternal health, health systems and policy challenges.
Supporting Policy Engagement for Evidence-based Decision-making (SPEED)
SPEED aims to investigate the macro-, meso- and micro-level factors that influence implementation of key policies in
a country. Activities included:
•
A conference presentation in Porto, Portugal on 13 June, on an innovative methodology called a Policy Implementation
Barometer (PIB) for assessing policy implementation in low and middle income countries;
•
Conducting the first pilot in Uganda, looking at malaria, family planning and emergent obstetric care; and
•
An inaugural seminar on the PIB, convened to look at challenges of policy implementation in South Africa and how
the PIB can be applied to unpack bottlenecks.
The Analysis of Non-communicable Disease Prevention Policies in Africa (ANPPA)
This is a multi-country study, including Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Togo and South Africa, examining the application
of a multi-sectoral approach (MSA) in the formulation and implementation of NCD prevention policies in Africa. The
South African country review sub-component focused on the salt reduction policy in South Africa and was presented
at the Africa Summit on NCD, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25–27 January 2017. A special
BMC Public Health
edition is
in preparation to showcase some of the comparative and country results on the application of MSA in NCD control.