Objective Health systems in many low income countries are strangled in a vicious circle: management capacity isperceived insufficient to be given full responsibility for priority setting, but without effective decentralization of the priority setting process, the capacity will never increase. District level services cater for a majority of service contacts. Therefore, a District focus is necessary to improve quality, equity, accessibility and affordability of care of the overall country services. Attempts have been made to strengthen district level planning and management mainly based on burden disease measures, cost effectiveness and capacity considerations and related planning tools, but adequate and sustainability improvements have not been achieved. National health policies promote more inclusive planning processes, but concrete involvement of others is still limited. This proposal aims to improve equity, access, affordability and quality of health care through introducing and evaluating improved priority setting according to the Accountability for Reasonableness (AFR) framework in Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia. AFR provides practical guidance for decision makers in making the fair balances within finite resource limits between mainly expert defined need, programmatic and other supply pressures, stakeholder interests and demands from users, their representatives and their communities. A case study and action research approach isused. Each country will involve Public Health and Social Science oriented academic institutions all in partnership with 4 leading and interdisciplinary PublicHealth Institutions in the EU.Results will be disseminated targeted to application through policies and plans and are expected to assist in a major strengthening of health systems self reliance and performance. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthsocial sciences Programme(s) FP6-INCO - Specific measures in support of international cooperation: Specific activities covering wider field of research under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research programme 2002-2006. Topic(s) INCO - Specific measures in support of international co-operation INCO-2003-A1.2 - Healthcare systems and management Call for proposal FP6-2003-INCO-DEV-2 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme STIP - Specific Targeted Innovation Project Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN EU contribution No data Address Nørregade 10 COPENHAGEN K Denmark See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (9) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN Norway EU contribution No data Address Muséplass 1 BERGEN See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data PRINCE LEOPOLD INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL MEDICINE Belgium EU contribution No data Address Nationalestraat 155 ANTWERPEN See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UMEÅ UNIVERSITY Sweden EU contribution No data Address Universitetsomraadet UMEÅ See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania EU contribution No data Address University Road 35091 DAR ES SALAAM See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH Tanzania EU contribution No data Address Ocean Road 9653 DAR ES SALAAM See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data PRIMARY HEALTH CARE INSTITUTE Tanzania EU contribution No data Address Haile Selassie Road, Gangilonga Area 235 IRINGA See on map Total cost No data KENYA MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE Kenya EU contribution No data Address Mbagathi Road (at Armed Forces Memorial Hospital) 54840 NAIROBI See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA Zambia EU contribution No data Address Great East Road, Main Campus 32379 LUSAKA See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI - INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES Kenya EU contribution No data Address University Way 30197 NAIROBI See on map Total cost No data