Health Systems Research Unit
Appendix 1: Interview schedules
Linking
health and environment in Cape Town, South Africa: The view
from local government, July 1998
A.1 Local government
civil servants
What do you understand
by "policy" at the local government level?
There is ongoing debate regarding the division
of powers and functions between MLCs, CMC and province. What are your views
on the existing relations between these different structures? How do these
relations impact on policy formulation and implementation?
How will elected councillors,
and other community viewpoints, input into policy making?
Linking environmental planning to health is increasingly
being seen as important. To what extent are the links between environment
and health being made in policy making?
Policy development may require detailed information
on current access to services, community priorities, health impacts etc. To
what extent is existing health information useful in developing policy and
in monitoring its impact?
Do policies set goals, targets and an implementation
framework?
What is your experience of the policy implementation
phase with regard to resource constraints, different organisational cultures,
and other constraining factors?
A.2 Councillors
The concept of democratically
elected councillors is very new in South Africa. What have some of your experiences
been?
How do you see your role as a councillor?
Local government is required to work in partnership
with communities - how is this occurring?
How do different council committees link up?
Is there ever any joint business and how is this organised?
What do you see as the benefits of improved service
delivery?
What are environmental health priorities among
your constituents?
What EH information do you get from officials?
How helpful is this for the decisions you have to take in council? Does EH
information agree with community priorities?
There has been much discussion of the impacts
of restructuring. What has been your experience of it and what effects has
it had on LG performance and service delivery?
How do you see policy working? Is it limiting
or desirable? What would be the goal around developing policy? |
