Even with strong political support for primary health care, strategies often fail in practice. Understanding the challenges from the perspective of primary health care managers and professionals reveals a gap between national strategies and local implementation.Recent research highlights how political economy factors create barriers and drivers for successful primary health care implementation.The political economy framework, which examines the interplay of political and economic forces, helps explain how political considerations can both hinder and facilitate effective primary health care rollout. Implementers must navigate the interests of various actors, including political leaders, beneficiaries, bureaucracies and donors.
This discussion will explore local, regional and national perspectives on bridging the gap between vision and reality, and how to translate the vision into practice.