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Situating responsibility for the control of infectious disease: the work of lay HIV counsellors in South Africa. Hayley MacGregor. The ESRC STEPS Centre. S ocial T echnological and E nvironmental P athways to S ustainability. STEPS Challenges.
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Situating responsibility for the control of infectious disease: the work of lay HIV counsellors in South Africa Hayley MacGregor Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
The ESRC STEPS Centre Social Technologicaland Environmental Pathways to Sustainability
STEPS Challenges • Understanding development-science interfaces in a highly dynamic world • Linking environmental sustainability with poverty reduction and social justice • Making science and technology work for the poor • Across 3 domains: Health, Agriculture and Water • Challenging conventional approaches of separate sectors and disciplinary silos Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011 www.steps-centre.org
Key features of STEPS Approach • Different FRAMINGS of systems: different ways of representing a system or problem • A politicised view of ‘systems’ and their dynamic environments • Acknowledging the politics of knowledge • Addressing governance: power, politics and institutions Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011 www.steps-centre.org
A systems perspective environment System: Social, institutional, ecological and technological elements interacting In dynamic ways ‘system’ Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Integrating knowledge and values: Framing • Dimensions of framing • - Scale • - Boundaries • - Key elements and relationships • - Dynamics in play • Outputs • - Perspectives • - Interests • - Goals • Values • - Notions of relevant experience Framings: Different ways of understanding or representing a system and its relevant environment Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Pathways Approach • In a given situation we might ask: • Who are the actors? • How is the system and goals for change FRAMED? • How is the ‘public’ constructed? • Identify PATHWAYS of response • Pay attention to alternative and marginalised perspectives • Constructing pathways to sustainability requires recognition and deliberation amongst multiple perspectives and possible pathways Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Epidemics and policy • Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice • Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
HIV: a chronic illness • Different framings of the problem of disease control • Different understandings of the role of lay HIV counsellors • Shifting meanings of ‘counselling’ • A case study in Khayelitsha, Cape Town Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Qualitative Methodology • In depth interviews with 20 facility-based lay counsellors • Interviews with their supervisors in the contracting NGO • Participant observation of their training • Key informant interviews • Background of a new policy framework • Previous fieldwork in Khayelitsha Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
The perspective of lay counsellors: • Hybrid notions of ‘counselling’ • The importance of formal and informal care practices • Perception of themselves as brokers between the clinic and the community • Complex understandings of ‘responsibility’ for illness Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Their working conditions • Anxiety about task shifting and increasing responsibility • Anxiety about associated risks • The politics of professionalisation • Concerns about targets: ‘the stats’ • Concerns about reduced time with clients: shifts in their practice and the effect on the nature of care Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
Conclusions • The importance of relationships with clients • The dangers of managerialism • Building on the idea of ‘brokers’: helping others negotiate the health system • Adequate supervision • A critical perspective on discourses of responsibility Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
A new policy framework • Re-engineering Primary Health Care in SA: the role of community careworkers? • UNAIDS/Cordaid cross-country study: case studies and identifying advocacy points with the help of an advisory board • The value of different kinds of evidence • Anthropology and interdisciplinarity • The politics of policy processes Dr Hayley MacGregor, 13 Dec 2011
The STEPS Centre’s Approach Working papers and briefings free to download on www.steps-centre.org