Sharon Fonn
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1445489 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Sharon Fonn |
| PRENOMES | Sharon |
| SOBRENOME | Fonn |
| ASSINATURA | FONN S |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6115-8707 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 36 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 41 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 36 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1988 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Association between self-reported gender-based discrimination and maternal mortality rates
Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the highest maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the world, with 542 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2017, relative to a global ratio of 211. Reducing gender-based discrimination (GBD) and increasing the empowerment of women and girls have recently been recognized as prerequisites for improving maternal health. Previous studies have shown GBD to result in low utilization of maternal health services and poorer qualit…
The Pedagogical Potential of Affective Oral Histories
Resilience of research capacity strengthening initiatives in Africa during crises
Background: Several research capacity strengthening (RCS) initiatives have been established in Africa over the past decade. One such initiative is the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) that has gained traction over the years and has been proven as an effective multidisciplinary approach to strengthen research capacity to address public and population health in Africa. Objectives: In this article, we document the experien…
Transformed through the Carta experience
Transformative learning occurs when a person, group, or larger social unit encounters ideas that are at odds with their prevailing perspective. This discrepant perspective can lead to an examination of previously held beliefs, values, and assumptions. The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) has since 2011 been training and supporting faculty from different African universities, to become more reflective and productive rese…
Positioning Africa’s public health doctoral students to lead societal transformation and development
The public health context is becoming increasingly more complex requiring highly trained professionals equipped with knowledge, competencies and tools to address or transform current and future challenges. Doctoral degree training offers an opportunity to build the capacity to detect and respond to such dynamic health challenges. In this paper, we discuss how Africa’s public health doctoral students can be better positioned for the different care…
Acceptability and feasibility of inter-related activities to improve agency among African district health managers
District health managers (DHMs) lead and manage Ministry of Health programmes and system performance. We report on the acceptability and feasibility of inter-related activities to increase the agency of DHMs in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda using a cross-sectional rapid appraisal with 372 DHMs employing structured questionnaires. We found differences and similarities between the countries, in particular, who becomes a DHM. The opportuni…
Quantifying the cost of in-kind contributions to a multidonor-funded health research capacity-building programme
INTRODUCTION: There are significant investments in health research capacity development in the 'global-south'. The monetary value of contributions from institutions running these programmes is not known. METHODS: Using the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) as a case study we estimate in-kind contributions made by consortium members. We measured unpaid hours of labour contributed by consortium members and converted this t…
Enhancing science preparedness for health emergencies in Africa through research capacity building
Editorial (no available abstract)
Increasing collaborative research output between early-career health researchers in Africa
In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non-African institutions started the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) to strengthen doctoral training and research capacity on health in Africa. This study describes particular aspects of the CARTA program that promotes collaboration between the PhD fellows in the program, and determines the patterns of collaborative publicatio…
Effective supervision of doctoral students in public and population health in Africa
The quality and success of postgraduate education largely rely on effective supervision. Since its inception in 2008, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) has been at the forefront of providing training to both students and supervisors in the field of public and population health. However, there are few studies on supervisors' perceptions on effective doctoral supervision. We used a mostly descriptive study design to re…
Gender responsive multidisciplinary doctoral training program
Doctoral training has increasingly become the requirement for faculty in institutions of higher learning in Africa. Africa, however, still lacks sufficient capacity to conduct research, with just 1.4% of all published research authored by African researchers. Similarly, women in Sub-Saharan Africa only constitute 30% of the continent's researchers, and correspondingly publish little research. Challenging these gendered inequities requires a gende…
Analysing child linear growth trajectories among under-5 children in two Nairobi informal settlements
Objective We sought to identify factors associated with linear growth among under-5 children in two urban informal settlements in Nairobi. Design We used longitudinal data for the period 2007–2012 from under-5 children recruited in the two sites between birth and 23 months and followed up until they reached 5 years of age. We fitted a generalized linear model on height-for-age Z -scores using the generalized estimating equations method to model l…
Exploring corruption in the South African health sector
Recent scholarly attention has focused on weak governance and the negative effects of corruption on the provision of health services. Employing agency theory, this article discusses corruption in the South African health sector. We used a combination of research methods and triangulated data from three sources: Auditor-General of South Africa reports for each province covering a 9-year period; 13 semi-structured interviews with health sector key …
The influence of health system organizational structure and culture on integration of health services
Administrative integration of disease control programmes (DCPs) within the district health system has been a health sector reform priority in South Africa for two decades. The reforms entail district managers assuming authority for the planning and monitoring of DCPs in districts, with DCP managers providing specialist support. There has been little progress in achieving this, and a dearth of research exploring why. Using a case study of HIV prog…
Building the capacity to solve complex health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa
Exploring the use of social network analysis to measure communication between disease programme and district managers at sub-national level in South Africa
Nesting doctoral students in collaborative North–South partnerships for health systems research
BACKGROUND: The European Union (EU) supports North-South Partnerships and collaborative research projects through its Framework Programmes and Horizon 2020. There is limited research on how such projects can be harnessed to provide a structured platform for doctoral level studies as a way of strengthening health system research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the challenges of, and facilitatin…
Global Health Action Supplement 1, 2013 Building NEW KNOWLEDGE
Public health challenges in a global context are to be found in the widening gap between the winners and losers of globalisation.To meet these challenges it is crucial not only to act constructively on what is already known and evaluate the results, but also to establish what we have yet to learn and still need to implement.The Journal therefore specifically welcomes papers that report on results and evidence derived from practical implementation…
A South African university-practitioner partnership to strengthen capacity in social and behaviour change communication
Globally, communication plays an integral role in public health strategies, from infectious diseases to diseases related to lifestyles. The evolution of the field of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC), combined with the need for evidence based practice and multi-level interventions to promote health, and human resource gaps in sub-Saharan Africa have led to the imperative to standardise and formalise the field. Moreover, current pra…
Administrative integration of vertical HIV monitoring and evaluation into health systems
BACKGROUND: In light of an increasing global focus on health system strengthening and integration of vertical programmes within health systems, methods and tools are required to examine whether general health service managers exercise administrative authority over vertical programmes. OBJECTIVE: To measure the extent to which general health service (horizontal) managers, exercise authority over the HIV programme's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) …
Developing a new mid-level health worker
BACKGROUND: Mid-level medical workers play an important role in health systems and hold great potential for addressing the human resource shortage, especially in low- and middle-income countries. South Africa began the production of its first mid-level medical workers - known as clinical associates - in small numbers in 2008. OBJECTIVE: We describe the way in which scopes of practice and course design were negotiated and assess progress during th…
Activism
Partnerships between civil society groups campaigning for reproductive and human rights, health professionals and others could contribute more to the strengthening of health systems needed to bring about declines in maternal deaths in Africa. The success of the HIV treatment literacy model developed by the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa provides useful lessons for activism on maternal mortality, especially the combination of a right-to…
The macroeconomic environment and sexual and reproductive health
The social services provided in any country are determined by resource allocation. How money is spent, the way in which programmes are organised, and the services that are prioritised can have important implications for health, including the sexual and reproductive health of men and women. Choices in how resources are allocated are influenced by a number of factors. Covering the years from the late 1970s to the current time, this article reviews …
Sexual and reproductive health and rights in public health education
This paper addresses the challenges faced in mainstreaming the teaching of sexual and reproductive health and rights into public health education. For this paper, we define sexual and reproductive health and rights education as including not only its biomedical aspects but also an understanding of its history, values and politics, grounded in gender politics and social justice, addressing sexuality, and placed within a broader context of health s…
Are social franchises contributing to universal access to reproductive health services in low-income countries
A social franchise in health is a network of for-profit private health practitioners linked through contracts to provide socially beneficial services under a common brand. The early 21st century has seen considerable donor enthusiasm for promoting social franchises for the provision of reproductive health services. Based on a compendium of descriptive information on 45 clinical social franchises, located in 27 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin …
Reproductive health services in South Africa
Since its transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa had made some bold moves towards developing a health sector that better meets the needs of its population. The government is committed to reproductive health and women's development, but the challenge of translating these commitments into services on the ground still lies ahead. Based on data from a review of maternal health services and a research and implementation project in three South A…
Exploring the use of social network analysis to measure communication between disease programme and district managers at sub-national level in South Africa
Making Systems Work
As part of a multi-country study, maternal health services were reviewed in one health district in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Poor record-keeping, inadequate supervision, poor levels of clinical knowledge and under-utilisation of midwife obstetric units were found. Interventions identified by local health service personnel to improve maternity care were developed, implemented and evaluated, included programme-specific (training in prevention…
Health providers' opinions on provider-client relations
A multi-centre study in four African countries was undertaken to test the acceptability and effectiveness of Health Workers for Change, a methodology to explore provider-client relations within a gender-sensitive context. This intervention addresses the interpersonal component of quality of care. The methodology, consisting of six workshops, was implemented by research teams in Zambia, Senegal, Mozambique and Uganda. It was found to be acceptable…
Exploring corruption in the South African health sector
Recent scholarly attention has focused on weak governance and the negative effects of corruption on the provision of health services. Employing agency theory, this article discusses corruption in the South African health sector. We used a combination of research methods and triangulated data from three sources: Auditor-General of South Africa reports for each province covering a 9-year period; 13 semi-structured interviews with health sector key …
Activism
Partnerships between civil society groups campaigning for reproductive and human rights, health professionals and others could contribute more to the strengthening of health systems needed to bring about declines in maternal deaths in Africa. The success of the HIV treatment literacy model developed by the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa provides useful lessons for activism on maternal mortality, especially the combination of a right-to…
Are social franchises contributing to universal access to reproductive health services in low-income countries
A social franchise in health is a network of for-profit private health practitioners linked through contracts to provide socially beneficial services under a common brand. The early 21st century has seen considerable donor enthusiasm for promoting social franchises for the provision of reproductive health services. Based on a compendium of descriptive information on 45 clinical social franchises, located in 27 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin …
Health Workers for Change as a health systems management and development tool
In this paper we draw overall conclusions concerning the Health Workers for Change (HWFC) methodology as a management and health systems development tool. We examine how HWFC has contributed to an elucidation of the four main themes with which this special Issue is concerned, namely: the value of participatory training; the need for gender sensitivity in health services; the impact of the HWFC intervention on gender sensitivity and quality of car…
The role of advocacy in implementing the South African abortion law
In order to translate the abortion law in South Africa into services that ensure equity of access and women's right to control their bodies, interventions are needed to change judgemental views on abortion. This paper describes formative research conducted in the Northern Cape Province among 436 community members, 29 women seeking an abortion and 80 health service providers, to develop appropriate interventions to these ends. Based on the finding…
Occupational health and safety in South Africa
An evaluation of Health Workers for Change in seven settings
This paper presents the findings of a multi-centre study assessing the impact of Health Workers for Change (HWFC) workshops in seven different primary care sites, based on the common core protocol described in this paper. The paper discusses a common methodology used by the studies, consisting of a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods. Such methodologies are inherently complex as they require comparisons across systems, sites and…
The Pedagogical Potential of Affective Oral Histories
The influence of health system organizational structure and culture on integration of health services
Administrative integration of disease control programmes (DCPs) within the district health system has been a health sector reform priority in South Africa for two decades. The reforms entail district managers assuming authority for the planning and monitoring of DCPs in districts, with DCP managers providing specialist support. There has been little progress in achieving this, and a dearth of research exploring why. Using a case study of HIV prog…
Sexual and reproductive health and rights in public health education
This paper addresses the challenges faced in mainstreaming the teaching of sexual and reproductive health and rights into public health education. For this paper, we define sexual and reproductive health and rights education as including not only its biomedical aspects but also an understanding of its history, values and politics, grounded in gender politics and social justice, addressing sexuality, and placed within a broader context of health s…
Occupational health and safety in South Africa
Reproductive health services in South Africa
Since its transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa had made some bold moves towards developing a health sector that better meets the needs of its population. The government is committed to reproductive health and women's development, but the challenge of translating these commitments into services on the ground still lies ahead. Based on data from a review of maternal health services and a research and implementation project in three South A…
Tant qu’on a la santé
Comment et dans quelles conditions les rapports sociaux entre hommes et femmes influencent-ils la capacité des gens à prendre soin quotidiennement de leur vie et de leur santé ? Comment la prise en compte des rapports de genre permet-elle une autre lecture des déterminants de la santé ? Si on admet que les rapports sociaux entre hommes et femmes transforment les facteurs déterminants de la santé, quels sont les changements à apporter dans nos pra…
The role of advocacy in implementing the South African abortion law
In order to translate the abortion law in South Africa into services that ensure equity of access and women's right to control their bodies, interventions are needed to change judgemental views on abortion. This paper describes formative research conducted in the Northern Cape Province among 436 community members, 29 women seeking an abortion and 80 health service providers, to develop appropriate interventions to these ends. Based on the finding…
Health providers' opinions on provider-client relations
A multi-centre study in four African countries was undertaken to test the acceptability and effectiveness of Health Workers for Change, a methodology to explore provider-client relations within a gender-sensitive context. This intervention addresses the interpersonal component of quality of care. The methodology, consisting of six workshops, was implemented by research teams in Zambia, Senegal, Mozambique and Uganda. It was found to be acceptable…
Health Workers for Change as a health systems management and development tool
In this paper we draw overall conclusions concerning the Health Workers for Change (HWFC) methodology as a management and health systems development tool. We examine how HWFC has contributed to an elucidation of the four main themes with which this special Issue is concerned, namely: the value of participatory training; the need for gender sensitivity in health services; the impact of the HWFC intervention on gender sensitivity and quality of car…
An evaluation of Health Workers for Change in seven settings
This paper presents the findings of a multi-centre study assessing the impact of Health Workers for Change (HWFC) workshops in seven different primary care sites, based on the common core protocol described in this paper. The paper discusses a common methodology used by the studies, consisting of a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods. Such methodologies are inherently complex as they require comparisons across systems, sites and…
Making Systems Work
As part of a multi-country study, maternal health services were reviewed in one health district in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Poor record-keeping, inadequate supervision, poor levels of clinical knowledge and under-utilisation of midwife obstetric units were found. Interventions identified by local health service personnel to improve maternity care were developed, implemented and evaluated, included programme-specific (training in prevention…
Achieving effective cervical screening coverage in South Africa through human resources and health systems development
South Africa’s cervical screening policy recommends three free Pap smears at ten-year intervals for all women over 30 years of age, aiming to achieve 70% coverage by 2010 by targeting the age group most at risk of developing pre-cancerous cervical lesions. Attaining wide coverage requires an adequate supply of motivated and supported public sector health workers with appropriate training and skills, working in a functional health system. Given th…
Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa
BACKGROUND: Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address th…
Innovation to improve health care provision and health systems in sub-Saharan Africa – Promoting agency in mid-level workers and district managers
Initiatives to address the human resource crisis in African health systems have included expanded training of mid-level workers (MLWs). Currently, MLWs are the backbone of many health systems in Africa but they are often de-motivated and they often operate in circumstances in which providing high quality care is challenging. Therefore, assuming that introducing additional people will materially change health system performance is unrealistic. We …
The macroeconomic environment and sexual and reproductive health
The social services provided in any country are determined by resource allocation. How money is spent, the way in which programmes are organised, and the services that are prioritised can have important implications for health, including the sexual and reproductive health of men and women. Choices in how resources are allocated are influenced by a number of factors. Covering the years from the late 1970s to the current time, this article reviews …
Sexual and reproductive health and rights in public health education
This paper addresses the challenges faced in mainstreaming the teaching of sexual and reproductive health and rights into public health education. For this paper, we define sexual and reproductive health and rights education as including not only its biomedical aspects but also an understanding of its history, values and politics, grounded in gender politics and social justice, addressing sexuality, and placed within a broader context of health s…
Are social franchises contributing to universal access to reproductive health services in low-income countries
A social franchise in health is a network of for-profit private health practitioners linked through contracts to provide socially beneficial services under a common brand. The early 21st century has seen considerable donor enthusiasm for promoting social franchises for the provision of reproductive health services. Based on a compendium of descriptive information on 45 clinical social franchises, located in 27 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin …
Activism
Partnerships between civil society groups campaigning for reproductive and human rights, health professionals and others could contribute more to the strengthening of health systems needed to bring about declines in maternal deaths in Africa. The success of the HIV treatment literacy model developed by the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa provides useful lessons for activism on maternal mortality, especially the combination of a right-to…
Global Health Action Supplement 1, 2013 Building NEW KNOWLEDGE
Public health challenges in a global context are to be found in the widening gap between the winners and losers of globalisation.To meet these challenges it is crucial not only to act constructively on what is already known and evaluate the results, but also to establish what we have yet to learn and still need to implement.The Journal therefore specifically welcomes papers that report on results and evidence derived from practical implementation…
A South African university-practitioner partnership to strengthen capacity in social and behaviour change communication
Globally, communication plays an integral role in public health strategies, from infectious diseases to diseases related to lifestyles. The evolution of the field of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC), combined with the need for evidence based practice and multi-level interventions to promote health, and human resource gaps in sub-Saharan Africa have led to the imperative to standardise and formalise the field. Moreover, current pra…
Administrative integration of vertical HIV monitoring and evaluation into health systems
BACKGROUND: In light of an increasing global focus on health system strengthening and integration of vertical programmes within health systems, methods and tools are required to examine whether general health service managers exercise administrative authority over vertical programmes. OBJECTIVE: To measure the extent to which general health service (horizontal) managers, exercise authority over the HIV programme's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) …
Developing a new mid-level health worker
BACKGROUND: Mid-level medical workers play an important role in health systems and hold great potential for addressing the human resource shortage, especially in low- and middle-income countries. South Africa began the production of its first mid-level medical workers - known as clinical associates - in small numbers in 2008. OBJECTIVE: We describe the way in which scopes of practice and course design were negotiated and assess progress during th…
Nesting doctoral students in collaborative North–South partnerships for health systems research
BACKGROUND: The European Union (EU) supports North-South Partnerships and collaborative research projects through its Framework Programmes and Horizon 2020. There is limited research on how such projects can be harnessed to provide a structured platform for doctoral level studies as a way of strengthening health system research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the challenges of, and facilitatin…
Exploring the use of social network analysis to measure communication between disease programme and district managers at sub-national level in South Africa
Exploring corruption in the South African health sector
Recent scholarly attention has focused on weak governance and the negative effects of corruption on the provision of health services. Employing agency theory, this article discusses corruption in the South African health sector. We used a combination of research methods and triangulated data from three sources: Auditor-General of South Africa reports for each province covering a 9-year period; 13 semi-structured interviews with health sector key …
The influence of health system organizational structure and culture on integration of health services
Administrative integration of disease control programmes (DCPs) within the district health system has been a health sector reform priority in South Africa for two decades. The reforms entail district managers assuming authority for the planning and monitoring of DCPs in districts, with DCP managers providing specialist support. There has been little progress in achieving this, and a dearth of research exploring why. Using a case study of HIV prog…
Building the capacity to solve complex health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa
Gender responsive multidisciplinary doctoral training program
Doctoral training has increasingly become the requirement for faculty in institutions of higher learning in Africa. Africa, however, still lacks sufficient capacity to conduct research, with just 1.4% of all published research authored by African researchers. Similarly, women in Sub-Saharan Africa only constitute 30% of the continent's researchers, and correspondingly publish little research. Challenging these gendered inequities requires a gende…
Political science (30 obras) · Medicine (29 obras) · Economic growth (19 obras) · Global Maternal and Child Health (18 obras) · Nursing (18 obras) · Business (16 obras) · Public relations (13 obras) · Sociology (13 obras) · Health care (12 obras) · Economics (11 obras)