Importance of monitoring domestic public health law and legal system supporting global health governance : development of an analytical framework to assess the domestic public health law situation in Western Pacific region countries

Abstract

"The World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) initiated a Public Health Law project in 2010, trying to develop a tool for monitoring the public health law situation in the WPRO countries. The project conducted pilot tests in four WPRO countries to check the appropriateness of a Public Health Analysis tool. Now, they are preparing to extend the assessment to new countries based on previous experience and learning. However issues have been raised about this ‘Analysis Tool to Assess Public Health Law’ which is comprised of four modules with a total of 90 questions, including its usefulness and future use, which still need to be answered. So, the aims of this study are 1) to present for an argument and demonstrate the usefulness of analyzing public health law and legal systems in countries as a tool of global health governance, 2) to identify the methods for the improvement of the application of an analysis framework including the academic value for public health law, and 3) to further enhance the future use of the framework for measuring domestic public health law and legal systems supporting global health governance. Literature review was undertaken on global health governance and public health law. At the same time international forums and conferences were attended to update academic perspectives on the same topic. Expert consultations were held on public health law in the Western Pacific Region to formulate the initial analysis framework and tool, which was subsequently pilot tested in four countries: Republic of Korea, Philippines, Vanuatu and Samoa. After a further revision, Kingdom of Cambodia was included too as a country implementing pilot test to establish the whole assessment process and its implications. In addition further meetings were held with technical staff in WHO/WPRO to review the applicability of the framework and analysis tool. To form the foundation of this thesis and the further design of a model for incounty monitoring for public health law supporting global governance, historical health legislation related activities were analyzed, as well as similar cases reviewed to understand the model's strengths and weaknesses. As infrastructure and intervention, Public health law provides a legal and administrative means that assures social conditions in which people can live healthy life. Monitoring public health law and legal systems in countries as one tool to understand governance that supports the improvement of people's health is a major strategy for WHO/WPRO. The appropriateness and usefulness of the analysis framework and its assessment tool for public health law were confirmed through applying it in selected countries in the Western Pacific Region. The pilot tests confirmed that special consideration should be given to its implementation process, such as getting concurrence from government and qualification of the local researchers as well as to the analysis of the assessment, such as quality control, analysis methods and implication of such to describe the local public health law and regulatory situation in a country. Lastly, the future vision for monitoring domestic public health law and legal systems supporting global health governance was proposed that includes 1) further development of the tool to assess health law, 2) creation of website and database of public health laws, 3) the establishment of networking to further enhance the analysis and establishment of domestic public health law on the basis of international health laws. Developing an assessment framework to analyze public health law and legal systems in countries as a tool for global health governance was demonstrated and proved useful. Secondly the tool added academic value by its applicability in different countries resulting in significant data collection and the ability to provide an overview of the public health law situation in selected WPRO countries."