FutureGenerations

A new book by the World Health Organization, Social Determinants Approaches to Public Health: from concept to practice presents a collection of 13 case studies on the social determinants of health. Chapter 11 features a case study by Dr. Laura Altobelli, Future Generations Peru Country Director. Dr. Altobelli shares the experience and data of Peru's national community-oriented health system, known as CLAS--Local Health Administration Committees.

This eight page report summarizes the strategy and impact of the Nexos Project, a four-year program in rural Cusco that linked 28 rural primary care health facilities with 258 communities and 17 municipal governments to improve maternal and child health. This project was funded from 2005-2009 by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) Child Survival and Health Grants Program.

Evaluation data from 2005 and 2009 shows significant impacts:

Roads are vital for overall development and the access afforded by these can be both extremely beneficial as well as hugely damaging. The road network in Peru includes the Inter-Oceanic Highway South [Carratera Interoceania Sur], a route linking the Pacific Ocean in Peru with a highway in Brazil that continues east to the Atlantic. This artery, already completed in Brazil but not totally finished in Peru, brings substantial social and environmental change to many areas.

To provide further empirical evidence of PAC’s and CLAS’s management model contribution to the health sector, a study compared the two systems from the financing and service provision viewpoints and thus evaluate the establishments’ efficiency at the first level of health care. The study was designed and carried out by Future Generations Peru with financial support from Mulago foundation and DFID/British Council.