Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: analytical schematics -- In sickness and in health: healthcare policy in colonial Africa, 1870-1960 -- Healthcare policy in post-colonial Africa: the influence of external institutions -- Healthcare policy in post-colonial Africa: measuring the impact of local institutions -- Healthcare policy in Africa and humanitarianism -- Healthcare policy in Botswana, Ghana, and Rwanda: agency and institutions -- Healthcare policy in Africa in the 21st century: challenges to policy and opportunities.

A comparative study of healthcare policy in Africa, the book explores the impact of historical institutions, multilateral organizations, and informal norms, such as, respectively, colonialism, the World Health Organization, and the Western-inspired biomedical approach to disease on health policy choices, implementation, and results in Africa. In addition, it examines the role of international philanthropy, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Partners In Health, Doctors Without Borders, and the multitude of NGOs that pullulate the African healthcare landscape. The emphasis on these (f)actors, not to mention Cuban medical aid, clearly underscores the "globalization" of healthcare policy in Africa. The case studies of Botswana, Ghana, and Rwanda --three differently endowed countries economically that are also at varying stages of democratic rule-- help to shed light on the influence of domestic political institutions and elite agency on healthcare policy processes across the continent.

Print version record.