INF5220 - 6

1. INF5220 - 6 Lecture 3rd of January 2006

2. Today: • Study health policy documents: • Health Policy of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (1993) • Health Sector Development Program (HSDP) • A summary/description of the action plan • Specifically the chapter on HMIS • Literature searches and library resources • UiO library as well as Internet resources • Exercises (in the lab): literature searches, download soft copies of course readings.

3. Group exercise: Discuss • What is the objectives of the plan with respect to the HMIS? • Why is an HMIS considered important? What is it supposed to deliver? • Organisational responsibility for implementation of the HSDP: Look at the proposed organisational structure in the last few pages of the description document. Do you think the proposed organisational structure will impact the development/implementation of HMIS positively or negatively? • Look at the proposed indicators for measuring sucess of implementing HMIS (last page of HMIS document). Try to formulate a critique of them. • In what way can it be of value for IS professionals to know such documents?

4. Textual analysis of policy document • A policy document is the result of a consensus process between various stakeholders (various levels in health bureaucracy, politicians, the public, donors and NGO’s, etc.) • Evaluations/negotiations involved in the process in many ways; • Defining the problem • Setting the priorities • Defining options • Developing strategies • Neither of these steps are ’just given’, self-evident or obvious • Political documents may appear as uncontentious and unproblematic. Political documents assert their authority through language, and through examining policy language, one may see which interest, ideas and values that are dominant, and which are not dominant (excluded).

5. Possible questions for a textual analysis (1) • Basic questions of textual analysis: Who says what to whom? By which means? With which effect? • Who is speaking? How do the speakers establish their authority? • Which ’tools’ (features of the text) are used to convince, enrol or persuade the audience? Three forms of persuasion: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion) and logos (reason) • Quotes from experts (scientific discourse) • Statistics or other ’technical discourse’ • Figurative language (metaphors, symbolism, imagery) • Experience (’true stories’, anecdotes, examples) • This text: Not a lot of technical or scientific discourse, but some affective language (adjectives/modifiers). Notice the role of the preamble.

6. Possible questions for a textual analysis (2): • Dominant and recurrent themes: • Self-reliance, community involvement, active popular participation, democracy, rights and powers of people, decentralisation, self-responsibility • The policy will address this through: • Giving emphasis to…, give appropriate prominence to…, give support to…, give attention to …, undertake development… strengthen provision… And the expected results: Enhanced awareness, control, promotion, development, rehabilitation, integration, expansion….

7. Possible questions for a textual analysis (3): • Important principle of semiotic analysis – to study how signs are given meaning and convey meaning in context: text and intertext. • E.g. the relations between different words and the groupings they occur in. This says something about how the area/topic is conceived, and has thus implications for what a ’solution’ (and course for action) may be. • The use of the word ’health’ in the policy doument: One definition (”Health = physical, mental and social wellbeing”) and > 40 different combinations with other words.

8. Health policy Health service policy Health parameters The field of health Development of health Health services Health centers Health development Health service system Health sector Health administrative apparatus Health problems Health care Health awareness Occupational health Environmentla health Health stations Health Infrastructure Health service management system Components of health Mental health Health institutions Health units Health research Health professionals Health needs Health councils Health activities Health committees Health care organisation Family health School health Health education Self-care in health Health promotive lifestyle Healthy environment Community health development Major health problems Research in health Maternal health Optimal health Health care facilities Health laws and regulation Health issues Health fund Health insurance Possible questions for a textual analysis (4):

9. Possible questions for a textual analysis (5): • Health status: Health is something to be measured and increased • Health problems: to be solved • Health needs: to be met • Here: health as organisation, as structure seems significant: • Field, sector, system, structure, organisation, facilities, committee, council, units, administrative apparatus etc. • Mode of understanding health: Health is something you organise

10. Possible questions for a textual analysis (6): • What is not mentioned? What are the assumptions? What is taken for granted? • Donor dependence not mentioned • More..?

11. Tools for literature searches: • Read through this document: http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5220/h05/undervisningsmateriale/Slides/Bibliotek.pdf • DUO at UiO’s library pages http://www.ub.uio.no/english/ • Contains instructions for thesis writing (templates, styles, submission) • Electronic archive: search in previous thesis (e.g. e-learning, HISP, action research) • X-port • E-journals: locate and download soft copies of the papers on the course reading list (many but not all are available, not MISQ) • Databases: choose the INSPEC database, do a search with free words and one by using the thesaurus. Combine searches to refine your results. • Other databases: ERIC (education science), PubMed (medicine), PsycInfo (psychology) and Sociological Abstracts (Sociology)

12. Tools for literature searches: • Internet resources: • Compare what you find on the ordinary Google and www.scholar.google.com • Encyclopedia Britannica (http://search.eb.com/), Oxford Reference (http://www.oxfordreference.com ) , and many more reference works • Resources such as Wikipedia, dictionaries (e.g. www.dictionary.com), Webopedia (http://www.webopedia.com) • Check out the ACM Digital Library at http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm • find the papers by Lynne Markus, and by Walsham and Sahay. How many have cited them later (counts only those within the ’ACM system’)? Try the ’find similar articles’-feature. • IEEExplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org)