This document summarizes a literature review on civil society engagement to strengthen national health systems to end preventable child and maternal death. The role of civil society in national health system strengthening remains ill-defined as disagreements continue to exist concerning the roles and responsibilities of donors, governments and civil society itself. The authors aim to […]
Writer: Health Systems Strengthening
Measurement of Health Program Equity Made Easier: Validation of a Simplified Asset Index Using Program Data From Honduras and Senegal
Piggy-backing on an existing representative household survey that includes an asset index, it is possible to assess the socioeconomic distribution of program beneficiaries at low cost. The typically large number of questions used to construct the asset index, however, deters many implementers from adopting this approach. This Global Health: Science and Practice article highlights a […]
Case Study: Improving Quality of Care and Outcomes for Child Health Using the Standards-Based Management and Recognition Approach in Zimbabwe
This case study aims to document the application of Standards-Based Management and Recognition (SBM-R) as a quality improvement approach to the case management of childhood illness in Zimbabwe through USAID’s predecessor flagship Maternal and Child Health Program. The lessons learned about the implementation process, success factors, and challenges will illumine the adoption of SBM-R to […]
Scaling Up High-Impact Health Interventions in Complex Adaptive Systems: Lessons from MCHIP
This report grew out of a review of the scale up of six maternal and child health interventions in India, Mali, Bangladesh and Malawi. The objective of the review was to identify effective scale-up strategies. […]
Community Health Systems as Complex Adaptive Systems: Ontology and Praxis Lessons from an Urban Health Experience with Demonstrated Sustainability
The global health and development field, which has been reasonably dominated by linear models of planning, is witnessing increased interest in complexity, non-linear processes, and systems thinking. This welcome interest is challenged by both language and ability to discern whether complex development phenomena are discussed from the perspective of the nature of particular health systems […]
Advancing the application of systems thinking in health: sustainability evaluation as learning and sense-making in a complex urban health system in Northern Bangladesh
Starting in 1999, Concern Worldwide Inc. (Concern) worked with two Bangladeshi municipal health departments to support delivery of maternal and child health preventive services. A mid-term evaluation identified sustainability challenges. Concern relied on systems thinking implicitly to re-prioritize sustainability, but stakeholders also required a method, an explicit set of processes, to guide their decisions and […]
SBM-R for child health, a synthesis of initial experiences in Guinea and Zimbabwe
The purpose of this review is to find out how the Standards-Based Management and Recognition (SBM-R®) approach has been applied in two countries, Zimbabwe and Guinea, to improve the quality of care for child health. Since the SBM-R approach is one of many quality improvement approaches, the findings will: (1) inform a process of developing […]
Assessing the Socioeconomic Profile of the Beneficiaries of an Intervention: A Step-by-Step Guide
This document describes a simple and low-cost method for assessing the socioeconomic profile of the beneficiaries of an intervention and to determine whether the intervention is pro-poor. It provides details on each step of the analysis. […]
Case Study: Primary Healthcare Clinical Placements during Nursing and Midwifery Education in Lesotho
In Lesotho, primary healthcare is the main access point for health services. While nurses and midwives provide most of the care at this level, assessments of the clinical education programs have highlighted gaps in primary healthcare experiences for nursing and midwifery students. This case study examines placement of nursing and midwifery students in primary health […]
January 21st event: Strong Health Systems Support Healthy Families
Join us for a discussion on the impact and importance of health systems strengthening in advancing maternal, newborn and child survival around the world. […]