EQUITABLE

This project was included as an applied policy research project that explicitly aimed to go beyond the provision of information and addresses how to ensure that research evidence affects policy and practice; both within the EU and Africa. This case study provides insight on how targeted, collaborative policy research involving African and European partners can achieve impact.

Aims of the project

The EquitAble project was developed as an effort to ensure that marginalized or vulnerable people, particularly those with disabilities, in LMICs have equitable access to healthcare. EquitAble researchers sought to develop an analytical framework, EquiFrame, which would help to assess the degree to which social inclusion and human rights feature in policy and policy-related documents in LMICs.  The EquitAble project team was a consortium constituted of partners in both high-income countries (HIC) and LMICs coordinated by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in Ireland.

Project achievements

The EquitAble project team developed a highly influential policy analysis framework: EquiFrame. Initially developed in the main for assessing disabled peoples’ access to healthcare in Africa, this tool has informed many national governments’ approaches to health access for vulnerable people. During the project alone, it led to the benchmarking of 51 policies in 4 African countries, and has since been adapted for policy analysis in different areas. To provide just one example, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have used EquiFrame to assess Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) policy in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

In addition to this, EquiFrame has been used to guide and implement new policy. EquiFrame esearchers were invited to review the draft Malawian National Health Policy and enhance its level of inclusivity. EquiFrame has since been used in Laos, which in collaboration with Handicap International, who translated EquiFrame into French, to develop their action plan on Disability.

Project impacts, barriers and enablers

While EquiFrame has already been used to change policies worldwide on equitable access to health and healthcare, attributing improved population health outcomes to the project is difficult. Tangible improvements in population health might already be observable but attributing them directly to the project would still be a challenge. In any case, to achieve further impact, continuous policy engagement as well as collaborating closely with LMIC partners will be key.