Varun Kumar

Strengthening Governance of District Health Administration Varun Kumar

Thesis (M. A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Health Science, grade: Distinction, University of Leeds (Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development), course: Masters in Health Management, Planning and Policy, language: English, comment: The topic is pertinent and relevant to health management in India. From the literature and with support of statistics from India, a very good rationale was established as to the importance of governance. The aim is to develop strategies to strengthen governance of the district health administration in Bihar, India. Clear and appropriate objectives were established to accomplish this aim. A brief plan is given in the final chapter of how to strategies to improve governance could to implement. The plan identifies organisations, individuals of government that would need to be part of the process. , abstract: In recent years, the governance of the health system has become a key issue of discussion for international organisations such as the WHO, the WB, UNDP, USAID and the EC. Furthermore, they state that spending on health would not alone achieve the intended results in health without addressing governance. The District Health Administration (DHA), generally called the office of the Civil Surgeon in Bihar, India, is considered a bridging administrative unit from national and state government to the community at village level. Moreover, this is a full-bodied unit with management and the administrative power under the leadership of Chief Medical Officer/Civil Surgeon and Assistant Chief Medical Officer with various health programme officers and support staff. Although health service delivery is seen to have improved in Bihar in recent years, issues such as leadership, management, accountability and transparency would seen to be weak in the DHA. This study aims to recommend specific strategies to strengthen governance of the DHA in Bihar. In doing so, it first identifies and critically analyses the causes of poor governanc