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Table 3 Governance practices underpinning two specific health policies

From: Governance function analysis of the Patriotic Health Movement in China

Governance domain

Specific criteria in each domain

PHM

Policy guidance and vision [21, 22, 24, 28,29,30,31,32]

Long term health plans /development goals/strategies

Role of this health policy in overall country development

Policy initiated from populations’ problems

Technical plans or strategies for this policy

Goals and priorities clearly defined in the policy strategies

Policy strategies and designs define the roles of different actors

There was clear health sector development strategy, but no formal long-term health sector development plan.

It was regarded as a crucial policy for national security and development.

Initiated by government based on need for national defense and due to the serious infectious disease situation.

Several official documents were issued by central government to direct local governments to design and implement CMS.

Control infectious disease and defeat the germ war were the final aims of this policy.

The policy design guidance documents included requirements on the participating actors and departments, but their specific roles were not detailed.

System design [23, 33, 34]

Specific health policy is related to overall health or national development plan

Health system structure responds to what needs to happen in this policy

Duplication and fragmentation are avoided and reduced?

Related to national health development strategy

Forming a new administration system for this policy in order to ensure the implementation.

The new administration department was organized by members from other relevant departments.

Regulation and management capacity [35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49]

Appropriate system or measures to ensure the policy to be operationalized (e.g. regulation, contract, legal or incentives)

System or measures to ensure the different levels of government accountable to the policy aims

System or measures to ensure the management capacity of different levels of governments

Issuing regulations and rules for top-down implementation.

Top-down way: Supervision, strict inspection from higher authority.

No documents provided relevant information.

Accountable and transparent [41, 47, 50,51,52,53]

System or measures to ensure different levels of governments to adopt policies based on the needs of local residents?

The performance of health authorities or health providers is transparent to the public

The finance situation of health authorities or health providers or health insurance fund is transparent to the public

Local authorities were encouraged adopted the PHM design based on local situation.

In some areas, the performance of relevant institutions was ranked and reported to public.

No documents provided relevant information.

Intelligence and oversight [37, 49, 54,55,56,57]

Evidence basis is available for policy design and contents

Monitoring and evaluation systems are in place and contribute to policy

No evidences support at the beginning, but in the process of implementation, the policy was improved and refined based on evidences from typical areas.

The reporting system for infectious diseases was always built during the implementation of this policy in some areas.

Collaboration and coalition building [29, 58, 59]

Different government departments work together on design and implementation of policy

Different social actors outside government contribute to the design and implementation of policy

Different government departments were involved in initiating the PHM and design, under coordination from the highest decision makers.

Some unions, such as the labor union, women’s union, also participated in the implementation of the PHM.