Measuring Progress and Success of Regional Health Policy: A PRARI Toolkit of Indicators for the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)

This PRARI Toolkit is the culmination of the work carried out in the area of regional indicators development of the project on Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration (PRARI), coordinated by Professor Nicola Yeates at the Open University (UK). The two-year project, carried out during 2014-2015, examines what regional institutional practices and methods of regional policy formation are conducive to the emergence of embedded pro-poor health strategies, and what national, regional and international actors can do to promote these policies.2 The work was carried out with support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)/ Department for International Development (DfID) United Kingdom, Grant Reference ES/L005336/1. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ESRC/DfID, The Open University, or the United Nations University. The PRARI Toolkit is one of the most important results of PRARI. We hope that it will be used by different South American stakeholders - officials of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) (including the Institute of South American Governance (ISAGS), which contributed to its development) and national officials to monitor the regional health policies in UNASUR. This Toolkit is focused on access to primary healthcare and access to medicines. The indicator system has not been designed as a static system or as a final proposal. Its innovation consists of the participatory approach used to develop it in collaboration with potential users of the system.