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The Institute for Global Health and Development

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/9

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    Migrants’ entangled socio-political and biological lives during the COVID-19 emergency in Brazil
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-09-04) Castro, Flávia Rodrigues; Zapata, Gisela P.; Vera Espinoza, Marcia;
    For migrants in Brazil, the COVID-19 global health crisis meant a considerable worsening of living conditions, with increased basic material needs. The reduction of individuals' existence to the mere search for survival had important repercussions on the activities of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country, whose work became increasingly focused on the distribution of emergency assistance for these populations. Drawing on 25 interviews with actors from CSOs, this paper unpacks the entanglement between the political and the biological aspects of migrants' lives. It argues that the pandemic brought to the fore the prominence of biological life to the detriment of migrants’ political and social lives in humanitarian responses to the health crisis. In this context, CSOs working with migrant populations in Brazil were pushed to reaffirm this dichotomy, while also contesting and reminding us that the impoverishment of migrants’ political and social lives can endanger the biological life that they meant to prioritise.
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    Building the capacity of community health workers to support health and social care for dependent older people in Latin America: a pilot study in Fortaleza, Brazil
    (BioMed Central, 2021-10-02) Neto, João Bastos Freire; de Moraes, Gerídice Lorna Andrade; de Souza Aredes, Janaína; Giacomin, Karla Cristina; de Melo, Luciane Ponte; Sempé, Lucas; Lloyd-Sherlock, Peter
    Background Brazil is seeing rapid population ageing, which is leading to new demands on primary health care services. There is a need to develop and assess the effectiveness of new interventions to build the capacity of staff, including community health workers, to meet the needs of groups such as care-dependent older people and their care-givers. This study examines the feasibility of a small training intervention piloted in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza. Methods The study evaluated participants’ own assessments of key knowledge and skills related to the needs of care-dependent older people, both before and after the training intervention. It also assessed their capacity to implement a simple screening tool of geriatric risk factors. Results The participant self-assessments indicate significant improvements in their perceived knowledge and capacity in responding to the health needs of care-dependent older people. Additionally, participants were able to successfully conduct the home visits and screening for risk factors. Conclusions The study demonstrates the feasibility of developing interventions to enhance the capacity of community health workers to meet the needs of dependent older people in countries like Brazil. The evidence of effectiveness, though limited and subjective, provides justification for a larger, formally evaluated intervention. The experience of Fortaleza provides valuable lessons for other cities and countries in the region which are facing similar challenges.
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    Weakening Practices Amidst Progressive Laws: Refugee Governance in Latin America during COVID-19
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-10-05) Zapata, Gisela P.; Gandini, Luciana; Vera Espinoza, Marcia; Prieto Rosas, Victoria
    This paper develops a comparative assessment of the state of asylum in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. It argues that an accelerated weakening of refugee protection, exacerbated during the pandemic, has taken place across the region. Faced with growing mixed flows, the region’s refugee framework has either been used as an ad hoc regularization mechanism or not been broadly used. Also, pandemic mitigation measures have further weakened access to asylum, through militarization and border closures, and a platitude of deterrence practices. These regressive practices may result in the undermining, abandonment and/or replacement of the region’s widely praised refugee governance.
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    Sociopolitical Determinants of International Health Policy
    (Sage, 2015-03-26) De Vos, Pol; Van der Stuyft, Patrick
    For decades, two opposing logics have dominated the health policy debate: a comprehensive health care approach, with the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration as its cornerstone, and a private competition logic, emphasizing the role of the private sector.We present this debate and its influence on international health policies in the context of changing global economic and sociopolitical power relations in the second half of the last century. The neoliberal approach is illustrated with Chile's health sector reform in the 1980s and the Colombian reform since 1993. The comprehensive public logic- is shown through the social insurance models in Costa Rica and in Brazil and through the national public health systems in Cuba since 1959 and in Nicaragua during the 1980s. These experiences emphasize that health care systems do not naturally gravitate toward greater fairness and efficiency, but require deliberate policy decisions.