Abstract

VEGA ROMERO, Román  and  TORRES TOVAR, Mauricio. The role of the civil society in the building of equitable health systems. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2011, vol.37, n.2, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

Objective To provide evidence on the contribution of the civil society to the building of equitable health systems. Data source Several sources of information, search engines and databases were reviewed, such as Goggle, UN websites, the Training and Research Support Center, the Southern Africa Regional Network for Equity in Health, The Civil Society Initiative by WHO, PAHO and Public and Private Initiatives. The reviewed articles included research files, published peer-reviewed articles, gray literature, systematic reviews of specialized documents and reports on this topic. Some of the key words were: health system-centered persons, equity and public policies, non-governmental organizations and intersectoral actions in health. Data synthesis Evidence showed that the civil society has contributed to the building of equitable health systems due to its subject and population-centered approach, the intersectoral action in favor of health and the empowerment and social mobilization. However, a lot of actions taken by the civil society organizations have favored the global and national policies that defen private market interests. In some cases, these actions have been targeted, minimal, biased or insignificant with respect to the challenges of health equity or they have served to hide the non-existence of commitment by the governments to the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded people. Conclusions It is required to have a general ethical and political perspective directed to recognize and strenghten the role of the civil society to improve health and reduce health inequities.

Keywords : Civil society; health equity; health system; right to health.

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