The Right to Health in Evidence-based Policymaking

The Case of Indonesia, 2009-2017

  • Farah Purwaningrum Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre - the University of Sydney, Australia
  • Fiona McDonald Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research - Queensland University of Technology, Australia
  • Stephanie Doris Short Director of Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre - the University of Sydney, Australia

Abstract

The right to health is included in United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) number 3, “Good health and well-being”. This goal aims to ensure healthy life and to promote well-being for all, at all ages. The SDGs, which build on the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), provide a significant expansion to the development agenda. Inclusive development is part and parcel of the SDGs. Evidence-based policymaking studies provide explanations of normative and legitimate expectations for policymakers, namely, to use scientific evidence and specific indicators in their policymaking process. The right to health, as constructed, in evidence-based policymaking discourse is in contention. This paper addresses the various types of meaning Indonesian policymakers attach to the right to health through their discourses in norms of health policy. This study provides an analysis of discourses, regulatory analysis, and historical narratives (based on analysis of health regulations and newspaper articles) pertaining to evidence-informed policy in the health sector in Indonesia from 2009-2017. Our findings elucidate how the right to health manifests in the processes of evidence-based policymaking. We do so by way of a two-pronged analysis, i) discourse analysis at the macro level in Indonesia about the right to health as a norm and ii) health policymaking at the micro level, in the Indonesian district of Gunungkidul,within the region of Yogyakarta.

Author Biographies

Fiona McDonald, Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research - Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Fiona is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology. Fiona is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Bioethics, Dalhousie University, Canada. Fiona is a Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. She is also a member of Dalhousie University’s Technoscience and Regulation Research Unit. Prior to her appointment Fiona was a research associate at the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University, Canada and a legal advisor to New Zealand’s Health and Disability Commissioner.  Fiona’s research encompasses issues related to health governance and has four broad themes:

  • the governance of health and systems (with a focus on rural bioethics and disaster response)
  • the governance of health technologies
  • the governance of health professionals
  • the governance of health organisations.

Fiona’s work has been published in a range of international journals, she has presented at a number of international conferences, and she has received grants, contracts and scholarships to conduct research in this area.

 

Research interests

  • Health governance
  • Health systems law and policy
  • Rural bioethics
  • Bioethics
  • Regulation.
Stephanie Doris Short, Director of Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre - the University of Sydney, Australia

Professor Stephanie Short Leads Workforce Development Activities in the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Workforce Development in Rehabilitation and Long Term Care. She is Deputy Director of the Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Academic Lead of the Shaping Health Systems Research Group, World Universities Network.

Under her supervision, she has guided PhD students and junior academic colleagues from diverse backgrounds, with former students and colleagues now holding senior positions in academe, government and industry.

She has chaired reviews, working parties and conferences. In 2010 Professor Short was elected to the Board of the Sociology of Health Research Committee of the International Sociological Association, for an eight-year term, and in 2014 she was elected Secretary-Treasurer for a four-year term.

Professor Stephanie Short is Convenor of HealthGov, an international research network that brings together researchers, health professionals and regulators to provide ideas and evidence to underpin good practice, safer practice and improved access to health care. She is a member of the Editorial Committee of 'Health Sociology Review', the 'Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management' and the 'International Journal of Health Governance'. In 2012 she was awarded a visiting research position at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, and she has successfully secured approximately $6 million in competitive grants over the years. Currently Prof Short is a chief investigator on an ARC Discovery Project 'Strengthening Health Workforce Migration to Australia and Canada'.

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Published
2020-06-27
How to Cite
PURWANINGRUM, Farah; MCDONALD, Fiona; SHORT, Stephanie Doris. The Right to Health in Evidence-based Policymaking. Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 1, p. 168-199, june 2020. ISSN 2599-2147. Available at: <https://jurnal.unej.ac.id/index.php/JSEAHR/article/view/14088>. Date accessed: 28 mar. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.14088.
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