HEALTH-PLANNING IN PAKISTAN - A CASE-STUDY

Health planning is an essential function of the state. For it to be su ccessful, a number of conditions need to be satisfied. In particular i t needs to be flexible, participative and integrated with other decisi on processes. Despite some strengths, the health planning system in Pa kistan has generally failed to provide the framework to allow such an approach. Links between strategic and operational planning have been w eak; decisionmaking has been very centralized; there has been a lack o f functional clarity; the respective roles of bureaucrats and politici ans have been unclear; and, links between capital and recurrent budget s and between planning and implementation have been weak, As a result, there is a number of imbalances in the allocation of resources. The i ntroduction of a revised health planning system for Pakistan is discus sed. The constraints on such a system and an initial assessment of its success are presented. ((C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)