Paina L, Wilkinson A, Tetui M, Ekirapa-Kiracho E, Barman D, Ahmed T, Mahmood SS, Bloom G, Knezovich J, George A and Bennett S (2017) Using Theories of Change to inform implementation of health systems research and innovation: experiences of Future Health Systems consortium partners in Bangladesh, India and Uganda, Health Research Policy and Systems, 15(Suppl 2):109, DOI: 10.1186/s12961-017-0272-y
The Theory of Change (ToC) is a management and evaluation tool supporting critical thinking in the design, implementation and evaluation of development programmes. We document the experience of Future Health Systems (FHS) Consortium research teams in Bangladesh, India and Uganda with using ToC. We seek to understand how and why ToCs were applied and to clarify how they facilitate the implementation of iterative intervention designs and stakeholder engagement in health systems research and strengthening.
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In this presentation, Jeff Knezovich, FHS Policy Influence and Research Uptake Manager, discusses some of the challenges associated with communicating complexity research. He then suggests some techniques and tools to get around these challenges
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The role for the private sector in health remains subject to much debate, especially within the context of achieving universal health coverage. This roundtable discussion offers diverse perspectives from a range of stakeholders - a health funder, a representative from an implementing organization, a national-level policy-maker, and an expert working in a large multi-national company - on what the future may hold for the private sector in health.
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Given the rapid evolution of health markets, learning is key to promoting the identification and uptake of health market policies and practices that better serve the needs of the poor. However there are significant challenges to learning about health markets. We discuss the different forms that learning takes, from the development of codified scientific knowledge, through to experience-based learning, all in relationship to health markets.
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The goal of Future Health Systems (FHS) is to improve access, affordability and quality of health services for the poor. In order to build resilient health systems for the future, we generate high quality scientific knowledge about how health systems can better deliver basic health services to the world’s poor. FHS supports its country research teams to identify and respond to health system challenges identified by local stakeholders. This annual report from the period 2012-13 captures our ongoing research, research uptake, and capacity building activities.
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The health situation of children in the Indian Sundarbans couldn’t be more precarious. Facing chronic malnutrition as well as a high prevalence of easily preventable but highly communicable diseases, access for children to health services in the region is complicated by the rough terrain and the winding tidal rivers of the deltaic region.The key question is, what can be done to improve the health situation of children in the Sundarbans? This briefing answers that question by outlining the several methodologies employed in the study. It then considers both the demand and supply sides for child-centred health services in the block. It concludes with recommendations for beginning to repair the fractured health system there.
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How Healthy are the Children of the Indian Sundarbans?\n\nIn early 2012, Future Health Systems India set out to answer this question. It undertook a study in one representative block (geographically and socially) of the Sundarbans: Patharpratima.\n\nThe key statistics presented in the following charts relate to our sample block (FHS 2012) in comparison to West Bengal (District Level Household Survey [DLHS-3] 2007-08) and Rural India overall (DLHS-3).\n\nAll findings and data can be found in the Sundarbans Health Watch Report (August 2013).
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In this short video, Jeff Knezovich, the Policy Influence and Research Uptake (PIRU) Manager for FHS, talks about getting development research into use and the importance of understanding the policy landscape around your research area. He outlines a simple approach that PIRU officers in each of the FHS countries undertook to develop our engagement strategies.
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In the second podcast from Future Health Systems, Jeff Knezovich visits the FHS Afghanistan team in Kabul to find out what sort of research they're currently undertaking, what challenges they face in attempting research in an insecure environment, and what it's like living and working in difficult security situations. He interviews Kojo, Melissa Roach and Anubhav Agarwal, who tell him about the community scorecard that FHS is in the process of piloting in several provinces in Afghanistan.
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In this first podcast from Future Health Systems, Jeff Knezovich finds out what complexity science is, and how a complex adaptive systems approach can help scale up health systems interventions. We find out from Ben Ramalingam about the history of complexity science, while Professor David Peters explains a few key concepts of complex adaptive systems.
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