Kent Buse, Nick Mays & Gill Walt UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH Making Health Policy www.openup.co.uk Cover design Hybert Design • www.hybertdesign.com Making Health Policy Surprisingly little guidance is available to public health practitioners who wish to understand how issues get onto policy agendas, how policy makers treat evidence and why some policy initiatives are implemented while others languish. This book views power and process as integral to understanding policy and focuses on the three key elements in policy making: the context, the actors and the processes. It is a guide for those who wish to improve their skills in navigating and managing the health policy process, irrespective of the health issue or setting. The book examines: ◗ Policy analysis ◗ Power ◗ Private and public sectors ◗ Policy makers ◗ Policy implementation ◗ Research and policy Kent Buse was Senior Lecturer in Health Policy, Nick Mays is Professor of Health Policy and Gill Walt is Professor of International Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Kent Buse, Nicolas Mays & Gill Walt Making Health Policy There is an increasing global awareness of the inevitable limits of individual health care and of the need to complement such services with effective public health strategies. Understanding Public Health is an innovative series of twenty books, published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low, middle and high income countries. The series is aimed at those studying public health, either by distance learning or more traditional methods, as well as public health practitioners and policy makers. UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC HEALTH SERIES EDITORS: NICK BLACK & ROSALIND RAINE