Abstract
To reach equity, health policies need to incorporate particular strategies to reach the most vulnerable groups (VGs). International policies and strategies for health are important to frame and facilitate reaching this goal in low-income countries. In order to gain a better understanding of how current international policies address equity in health services for VGs, EquiFrame was developed as an analytical framework. Based on a comprehensive development and validation process, EquiFrame comprises 21 core concepts (CCs), 12 VGs, and a qualitative scoring system. Ten international health policies were selected for analyses. The analyses showed that the international health policies included did mention many of the VGs, with the more general and systems oriented terms being the most frequent. The link between CCs and the VGs was low across the policy documents, and the overall quality of the documents, using the EquiFrame scoring system, was low. Lack of specificity regarding CCs of human rights and limited inclusion of VGs in international health policy documents is problematic and may reduce possibilities for up-scaling and implementing health services in low-income countries that can promote health for all, and particularly the most VGs. EquiFrame offers a tool for evaluating health policies, benchmarking and identifying best practice, and for revising and developing more inclusive policies that can address the challenge of achieving the health-related MDGs and health for all.