Framing access to essential medicines in the context of Universal Health Coverage: a critical analysis of health sector strategic plans from eight countries in the WHO African region.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Framing affects how issues are understood and portrayed. This profoundly shapes the construction of social problems and how policy options are considered. While access to essential medicines (ATM) in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region is often framed as a societal problem, there is dominance of medical and technically oriented approaches to analyze and remedy the situation. Hence, the systematic application of social science approaches, such as framing theory, remains under-explored. Through a framing analysis of National Strategic Plans (NSPs) from eight countries, this study explores the applicability and potential usefulness of framing theory to analyze essential medicines policies.

Methods

We inductively coded the relevant NSP textual fragments

SUBMITTER: Mhazo AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9682662 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature