ENSURING A RESPONSIVE HEALTH-CARE PLANNING FUNCTION IN DEVELOPING REGIONS OF THE WORLD

In their furious efforts to achieve 'Health For All by the Year 2000,' developing country governments are confronted with phenomena that oft en characterize the health and non-health cave planning environments o f more developed regions. These include longer-standing issues such as the rising cost of more sophisticated medical technologies and shifti ng socio-economics and demographics, as well as evolving factors such as increasing competition and a greater emphasis on social responsibil ity. Adding to the challenge, developing countries face issues that ar e not generally encountered in move advanced economies, such as weak l ogistical and communications infrastructures. The success of a governm ent in supplying appropriate health ser vices to its population under such challenging, multi-sectoral conditions requires the design of str ategies/interventions that are at once population-responsive, technica lly effective, and logistically feasible. This paper develops a framew ork for identifying and evaluating such strategies based on a multi-di sciplinary view of the health care planning environment. In this regar d, the approach appreciates the generally limited technical support le vels and fragile planning infrastructures found in less developed regi ons while recognizing the fundamental importance of these regions' cul tural, ethnic, and religious diversities.