Topic Guide: Corruption in Health Services

Transparency International. 2017. Monitoring Corruption and Anticorruption in the SDGs: A Resource Guide. http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/monitoring_corruption_and_anti_corruption_in_the_sustainable_development_go  

As part of its follow-up and review mechanisms for the SDGs, member states are encouraged to conduct regular national reviews of progress made towards the achievement of these goals through an inclusive, voluntary and country-led process. This guide explains the role of civil society organisations in monitoring corruption in the SDGs, as well as how to identify potential indicators and data sources for this purpose. Throughout the guide, there are country examples of indicator selection, inclusive follow-up review processes and approaches to corruption monitoring. A chapter is dedicated to mainstreaming anti-corruption in monitoring SDG 3.  

Management Sciences for Health. 2016. International Drug Price Indicator Guide. http://mshpriceguide.org/en/home/  

This tool by Management Sciences for Health provides practitioners and healthcare procurement agents with an effective guide of international drug prices. It obtains these prices from pharmaceutical suppliers and procurement agencies and cross-checks the prices with those obtained from international development organisations and government agencies. The tool has been active since 2001 and currently contains drug prices from 2014.  

Maureen Lewis & Gunilla Pettersson. 2009. Governance in Healthcare Delivery: Raising Performance.http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/792741468330936271/pdf/WPS5074.pdf  

The impacts of healthcare investments in developing and transition countries are typically measured by inputs and general health outcomes. This paper contends that measures of performance should rather reflect whether health systems are meeting their objectives and whether public resources are being used appropriately. The authors propose performance indicators that offer the potential for comparable measures and whose collection is not overly complex nor costly. These measures, when available, are useful tools for cross-country comparisons and for tracking relative health performance, and provide the context for the discussion of good governance in health service delivery.  

Health Action International (HAI). No date. Medicine Promotion: Assess the Nature and Extent of Countries' Pharmaceutical Promotion Control and Its Impact on Promotional Practices. http://haiweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Assessing-the-Nature-Extent-and-Impact-of-Regulation-of-Medicines-Promotion-Methodology.pdf  

With the support of the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA), HAI has developed an innovative methodology to assess the nature and extent of countries' pharmaceutical promotion control. The methodology aims to investigate the regulatory framework of medicines promotion in the context of national settings. As a tool to gather data on regulation, it complements WHO’s Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion. The project has been conducted under the guidance of an advisory group of international experts. HAI's methodology combines desk research, interviews and data collection to provide a complete profile of the national situation, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the regulatory framework and provide analysis of stakeholder positions.  

Brenda Waning. 2008. Transparency and Accountability in an Electronic Era: The Case of Pharmaceutical Procurements. U4 Brief 2008:10. http://www.u4.no/publications/...  

Secrecy in the pharmaceutical industry and the intentional non-disclosure of information on medicine prices have made it difficult for purchasers to negotiate a fair price and hold procurement staff accountable for good procurement practices. In addition, procurement systems which allow critical decisions to be made by a few powerful public officials exacerbate corruption risks in the procurement of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines for treatment. Transparency of ARV prices is the first step towards identifying and minimising corruption in procurement. Recent advances in information technology can help improve transparency in drug price information, and to help manage and store drug procurement information in electronic formats. This U4 Brief describes how international partners and national procurement agencies have used information technology to improve transparency and increase accountability in the procurement of HIV/AIDS medicines. In particular, it describes how Boston University researchers drew on publicly available data from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (GFATM) and WHO’s Global Price Reporting Mechanism to improve transparency in medicine procurement by strengthening data quality, creating performance indicators and benchmarking reports, and promoting public dialogue.