Lessons on scale-up – a HSR2018 session

‘Lessons on scaling-up interventions to improve equitable access to health care’ is a participatory session featuring contributions from practitioners and policy makers in the field of health scale-up. Speaking at the session are:

Chair: Mr Tim Martineau, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Talk-show host: Dr Peter Fajans, ExpandNet Secretariat, France

Project representative 1: Dr Luan Vo, Friends for International TB Relief (FIT), Vietnam, (IMPACT-TB)

Project representative 2: Dr Jakub Gajewski, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (SURG-Africa)

Project representative 3: Dr Joanna Raven, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK (PERFORM2Scale)

Policy maker 1: Prof Yoswa Dambisya, East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), Tanzania

About the session

The session recognises that there are many effective innovations in health services delivery that could contribute to the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and that the challenge is in bringing these innovations to scale in order for them to have sufficient impact on UHC. During the session we will present experiences and lessons learnt on effective scale-up design and implementation.

Three current projects, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, will provide the focus for the session, each of which has been designed to scale-up tested health-related interventions in a variety of contexts in Africa and Asia. The interventions are:

1) scale-up with health economic evaluation of different strategies for active case finding for tuberculosis by IMPACT-TB in Nepal and Vietnam;

2) Scaling Safe Surgery for District and Rural Populations (SURG-Africa) in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia; and

3) district-level management strengthening using action-based learning by PERFORM2Scale in Ghana, Malawi and Uganda.

Objectives of the session

The intention is to use this session to launch an ongoing dialogue on the design, implementation and practicalities of scale-up, so as to generate and disseminate both methodological and policy and practice lessons. Specific objectives are:

To advance the understanding of the methodological field of implementation research

To promote evidence-based approaches for scale-up of health interventions

To identify practical lessons for improving the design and implementation of scale up

To initiate and elicit interest and support for an informal network of researchers and programme implementers interested in the science and practice of scale-up

Structure of the session

Introduction: a brief introduction by the Chair on the rationale, objectives and expected outcomes of the session, followed by a brief overview and status of each project.

Interactive talk-show style panel session: hosted by Dr Peter Fajans from ExpandNet. A series of questions posed to the project representatives covering key issues in the process of scale-up beginning with prior connections/relationships with national/local decision-makers, initial planning of scale-up and implementation start-up, through to ensuring sustainability. The role of research in modifying and guiding implementation, and in building sustainability, will be integrated into the discussion. Session attendees will be invited to directly question the panelists.

Building an informal network: the session will conclude with the proposal of an informal network to continue the discussion.

Who is the session aimed at?

This session is aimed at policy makers, donors and development agencies, and also programme implementers who are engaged or interested in scale-up of tested packages of interventions to improve equitable access to health care. It will also be of interest to researchers, both those developing interventions for scale-up and those researching scale-up processes.

More information

More on PERFORM 2Scale at the Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

More on the Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, including registration details.