Partnerships to advance public sector scaling of health innovation: Insights from collaborative learning with government and a new Action Lab for East Africa
On 6 May 2022, Grand Challenges Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Results for Development and Insight Health Advisors hosted a virtual side event at the the 7th United Nations Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum).
BACKGROUND
The scaling up of promising health innovations in Low- and Middle-Income countries (LMICs) is becoming an increasingly important area of interest for actors seeking to build efficient, resilient and adaptive health systems – particularly for governments seeking to build back better after the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which has reversed many decades of progress in healthcare outcomes.
In early 2020, members of the International Development Alliance (IDIA) agreed to make scaling - and public sector scaling in particular - one of their key priorities for the period 2020-2022. To begin exploring this largely neglected topic, Grand Challenges Canada and Global Affairs Canada (the funders) entered into a partnership with global NGO Results for Development (the facilitators) and local partner Insight Health Advisors (the implementers), with a view to understanding how to drive institutional change in the way governments source and scale up innovations within their health systems.
EVENT SUMMARY
This session opened with Jean-Bernard Parenteau, Director General of Canadian Partnerships for Health and Social Development within the Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch of Global Affairs Canada. Jean-Bernard provided some introductory remarks around the importance of using partnerships to drive institutional change in the way governments source and scale up innovations within their health systems.
Factors influencing demand and scale-up of health innovations within public health systems
Dr. Nelson Gitonga (Insight Health Advisors) then presented the highlights from IHA’s landscape analysis which resulted in the six factors influencing public sector demand and scaling health innovations. These six factors are: (1) Articulation of demand; (2) Incentives to look for innovations; (3) Awareness of potential innovations; (4) Ability to engage effectively with innovations and innovators; (5) Financial resources and political will to fund scale up; and (6) Public sector rules, regulations and procedures. Dr. Gitonga then explained how these six factors were then translated into a unique model for enhancing public sector demand for and scaling of innovations called the “Mountain Model” to help governments transform the way they source and integrate innovations within their health systems.
Visual Summary of the Mountain Model enhancing public sector demand and scale up of innovations
Implementation of the Mountain Model in Kenya
Dr. Walter Obita (Insight Health Advisors) then shared insights and key lessons learned from their ongoing implementation of the Mountain Model with cohorts of government officials in Makueni and Kajiado counties in Kenya, noting that:
Gaining county government leadership commitment and ownership right at the beginning of the project was critical for success
Counties have experience testing and working with innovations in the past, so the aim was to strengthen the existing capacities to gradually build county systems and processes to demand, asses and scale relevant innovations
Learning “base camps” have allowed counties to translate experiences and learnings to enable cross-county learning and resource sharing.
A new Public Sector Scaling Action Lab for East Africa
Meghan Erkel (R4D) then introduced an exciting new initiative supported by Grand Challenges Canada, the Public Sector Scaling Action Lab of East Africa, a flexible platform through which public sector scaling champions from different sectors can exchange learning and collaborate to advance demand for and scale-up of innovations within public health systems in East Africa through four main workstreams:
Convene a community of PSS Champions
Build PSS knowledge and learning
Facilitate networking with PSS stakeholders; and
Promote and strengthen the PSS movement.
The Founding Champions of the new Public Sector Scaling Action Lab
Panel Discussion
The session then concluded with a lively panel discussion with representatives from the new Action Lab, chaired by Dr Wangari Ng’ang’a, Senior Health Advisor within the Executive Office of the President in Kenya. Dr Wangari asked panelists for their recommendations on how the PSS Action Lab can better support the demand for and scale up of innovations through the public sector in East Africa:
Dr Maraki Fikre, Private Sector in Health Advisor to the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia, spoke to the innovation and digital strategy Ethiopia has been pushing to ensure that each sector has a strategy to engage and discuss innovation, especially outside urban centers in rural areas. She recommended that the Action Lab focus on sharing what other countries are doing to bring digital literacy in rural areas and how to co-create environments outside urban areas. She said the Action Lab should start to think about a regionalization concept so we can better discuss a regional data standard, as well as share successful innovations throughout East Africa.
Dr Tendai Gotora, Director of Programs at Spark Health Africa, echoed that the success of a platform or network like the PSS Action Lab is mission driven membership to create nurturing relationships to spread lessons learned and best practices that have been applied contextually in each of the countries the Champions work and represent.
Dr Moredreck Chibi, Regional Innovation Lead for WHO Regional Office for Africa, recommended that the Action Lab create a culture of learning to not reinvent the wheel and leverage the innovations that have been developed. He also noted the work of the WHO in supporting the development of new innovation-focused government units / teams such as the Botswana Innovation Management System, a scaling mechanism for impactful health innovations that respond to Botswana priority needs.
Get Involved!
This is a very short summary of a very rich discussion. If you are you working to promote the scale up of health innovations within public health systems, interested in participating in future Lab events to learn more about public sector scaling, or interested in co-funding the Lab or supporting the establishment of a Lab in another region, we would love for you to get involved!
For more information, please send a note via the ‘Contact Us’ part of this website.
