Roles of Civil Society Organizations and Global Health Governance in Developing Countries: A Case of Bauchi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the roles of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Global Health Governance (GHG) in developing countries: A case of Bauchi state Nigeria. Bauchi State, Nigeria, was the study area. CSOs’ roles in health governance are not distinct, while relationship between them and state actors has its own prospects and constraints. It was against this background, the study explored new openings on these roles, so as to find ways of improvement, avenue for recommendations and suggestions for policy brief formulation and areas for further research. The study was descriptive in nature, conducted in II phases. Phase I employed case study approach, and Phase II a mixed methods; that is quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Both approaches involved convenient, purposive and random sampling techniques. The sample size of the study was 156 respondents for the quantitative and 15 respondents for the qualitative. The data collection instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and correlation analysis to determine the existence of significant differences between the variables at P>0.005 level of significance, computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21. The correlation analysis revealed a strong correlation between the roles of CSOs and achieving Global Health Governance (r=0.424 at P<0.001). Also, private sector and individual actors’ contribution to health system governance as CSOs in the study area are almost non-existing. Furthermore, 87.8 percent of the respondents support a systematic collection of primary data across global health organizations. The study also highlights areas in which health system CSOs can contribute in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals number three (SDG 3) target. Therefore, CSOs should initiate, organize, coordinate and conduct scientific engagements in form of webinars, workshops, seminars, conferences and symposiums in developing countries; such engagements would improve staff capacity and also serves as means of data collection, for inform policies and practice that could translate ideas into actions for resilient health outcomes and its sustainability.