The value of the social sciences is increasingly recognised in health services and clinical research, contributing to an increasing number of multi-disciplinary, multi-method studies. Such studies offer numerous advantages, but also pose particular challenges, including different approaches to...

New public management (NPM) ideas have been reflected in the international health sector reform agenda. This paper summarizes the extent and depth of reform in the five countries studied, as reflected in four key policy arrangements, and reviews the various dimensions of capacity which have...

Illness is a major risk to people's livelihoods in resource-poor settings, particularly where there are rising levels of chronic illness. Measures that improve access to treatment are increasingly seen as a vital form of social protection for vulnerable households, and central to the achievement...