Findings from the Field
The Community of Practice Health Service Delivery: Strengthening Health District Teams to Accelerate PHC Improvement in Africa
The CoP HSD: Scope and key tools
The CoP HSD was developed as a solution to address the identified gap in information availability at the front-line service delivery level. Despite the changing landscape of new information and communication technologies in sub-Saharan African health systems, peripheral levels of the system are often still left behind without access to the most current health information. The CoP HSD vision is to fill this gap by accelerating knowledge sharing across all levels of the health system. CoP HSD aims to reduce the reliance on only central levels, vertical programs and pharmaceutical companies as the sole sources of information, and improve access to guidelines and scientific information. The use of technology is critical to the CoP HSD, as online tools are a cost-effective way to share best practices, new knowledge, and implementation experiences. However face-to-face events are key and are used as complementary knowledge sharing tools by the CoP HSD.
The CoP HSD has created a clear identity and used multiple active and passive recruiting methods to help grow the volume of the community to its current 1,400 members. The CoP HSD operates through several key methods to translate knowledge into action. These methods include: i) maintaining an online discussion forum and blog; ii) publishing a regular newsletter; iii) increasing identity awareness and informing the population through social media with a Facebook page with more than 10,000 likes (as of June 2016); iv) holding face-to-face events (for example, the Cotonou workshop on health information systems); and v) conducting research on user-defined priorities, as illustrated by the project “Mobilization 2.0 of health district management teams to fight against outbreaks and other emerging health issues” (Mobilisation2.0).
Key focus: Empowering local actors to use data for action
This idea of creating a horizontal learning environment is a key differentiation between CoPs and other knowledge management strategies, and enables the sharing of both explicit and tacit knowledge and the fostering of mutual trust. In addition, the process of bottom-up agenda setting is an important aspect of the CoP HSD, which ensures that members themselves define the priority questions, test innovative solutions, and share results. Above all, the CoP HSD works toward a “collective intelligence,” a term which encompasses these core beliefs of horizontal learning and knowledge sharing for the following key purposes: i) improve a collective understanding of key health system challenges; ii) reach a better alignment on collective objectives; iii) improve collective decision-making; and iv) provide more opportunities for collective actions. As such the “collective intelligence” concept is a key mechanism, in the theory of action of the CoP HSD, to reach an optimal mobilization of all the competencies available, to raise up and empower actors at all levels of health service delivery to make decisions and take action for sustainable changes and progress in PHC improvement.
The Mobilisation 2.0 project: testing the strategy in action
An example of this process in action can be seen in the “Mobilization 2.0” project, which is going on in two test countries: Benin and Guinea. In this project, the CoP HSD implements fast learning cycles, using online survey tools to collect information from members about the organization and management of District Health Management Teams (HDMT) in their locality. The CoP HSD then rapidly analyzes and benchmarks the collected data and produces data visualizations, which are shared with all who participated in the survey. Survey participants are able to use this information to identify challenges or interesting examples of HDMT organization and management that they would like to explore further. HDMTs can then utilize the local CoP platform to contact other members to learn more about their HDMT models. This process highlights the utility of the CoP platform in enabling peer-to-peer communication and exchange of information among groups who would otherwise have had no means of connecting and communicating. A systematic study of how CoP users utilize and act on data from Mobilization 2.0—including the changes they make to HDMT management and organization—is ongoing and will yield interesting insights about this method of data sharing in the near future.
Implementing a CoP: Some key considerations
Lead members of the CoP HSD identified a few main considerations and challenges in implementing this strategy of knowledge management and community building. Maintaining equality of voices is
Community of Practice Meeting
Health systems in sub-Saharan Africa require innovations to accelerate progress toward improved primary care. The CoP HSD provides an innovative opportunity for frontline providers and policymakers to be empowered and to put their own stone at the foundation for building strong local health systems that can deliver quality health care to people in need.
Interested in learning more? Become a member! Join the Facebook group, register for the CoP HSD newsletter, read our blog, and discussion forum. You can also contact Basile Keugoung (keugoung@gmail.com) for more information.
Jean Paul Dossou, MD MPD, is a PhD student at the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie in Cotonou Benin and the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp-Belgium, as well as a co-facilitator of the Health Service Delivery Community of Practice.
Basile Keugoung, MD, MPH, PhD, is a lead facilitator of the Health Service Delivery Community of Practice.
Elisabeth Tadiri is a Primary Health Care Intern at Ariadne Labs, a joint center between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T. H Chan School of Public Health.
Hannah Ratcliffe, MSc is a Research Analyst at Ariadne Labs.