Save the Date!

The Learning Network is hosting a Virtual Ecosystem Event on Friday 8 April 2022 from 5 pm-6.30 pm CAT, at this year’s Skoll World Forum. The event is titled, “Looking beyond COVID: Turning emergency response into sustainable impact.” During this panel discussion, speakers will share examples of COVID programs implemented with a sustainability lens. Examples will include government-run mobile vaccine units in Côte d’Ivoire; operationalizing district teams to address emergency needs while building health system capacity in Uganda; and how private-sector efforts to pivot during COVID will be sustained to achieve Universal Health Coverage in Kenya.

On 8 April 2022 at 5 pm CAT we invite all Learning Network members to join and participate in the event by following this link– no registration is required. Feel free to share within your professional networks!

The power of collaborative engagements

Events of the past quarter reminded us of the African proverb that says, “It is by the strength of their number that the ants in the field are able to carry their prey into the nest”. We had the privilege of meeting several like-minded organisations with a shared vision of effectively scaling solutions in the public sector. We shared experiences and spoke about opportunities to collaborate on strengthening the Learning Network.

In February 2022 we met with the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) to explore opportunities for collaboration. ECSA-HC is an inter-governmental health organization that fosters and promotes regional cooperation in health among member states. Member states of the ECSA-HC are Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Eswatini, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

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    The Health Diplomacy and international co-operation where ECSA-HC is shaping up effective strategies by strengthening the voice of our policymakers to influence policy (the Learning Network is looking to use its webinar events and workshops to amplify the voice of government leaders to better articulate their scaling needs and demands),

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    The Regional Network on Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa that works closely with ECSA-HC in building a forum for dialogue, learning, sharing of information, experience, and critical analysis (the Learning Network will in April 2022 establish a virtual Community of Practice for idea generation, and sharing of lessons and systematic documentation of best practices around scaling of innovations in the public sector across Sub-Saharan Africa), and

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    The Regional Network on Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa that works closely with ECSA-HC in building a forum for dialogue, learning, sharing of information, experience, and critical analysis (the Learning Network will in April 2022 establish a virtual Community of Practice for idea generation, and sharing of lessons and systematic documentation of best practices around scaling of innovations in the public sector across Sub-Saharan Africa), and

To this end, the Learning Network has formally entered a Memorandum of Understanding with ECSA-HC and is pleased to welcome its newest institutional member. Both the Learning Network and ECSA-HC very much look forward to jointly advancing knowledge and best practices around the scaling of innovations in the public sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the same month, we had the pleasure of connecting with Laura Ghiron, President of Partners in Expanding Health Quality and Access, and a Member of the ExpandNet Secretariat. ExpandNet is an informal global network of individuals from international organizations, non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions, governmental ministries and specific projects who seek to advance the science and practice of scaling up. Some of you will remember ExpandNet from references made in the Journey to Scale Tool on “Beginning with the end in mind” and “Nine steps for developing a scaling-up strategy”.

Our friends at ExpandNet invite members of the Learning Network to explore ExpandNet’s publications covering numerous tools and scaling-up guides, that are only outmatched by ExpandNet’s bibliography which includes publications, websites, grey literature, and conference reports that either directly address scaling up or provide valuable insights on scaling up. Included are materials from a range of global health and development technical areas as well as the various sciences relevant to scale up.

We look forward to having ExpandNet’s global membership being part of the Learning Network to share their scaling experiences, but also joint action with the Learning Network in technical workshops to support the use of scaling frameworks and tools.

Scaling in practice

Rosemary Mwaisaka, Program Manager, Non-Communicable Diseases and Food Security, at ECSA-HC shared with us an interesting success story on a scaling initiative in the Southern African region. ECSA-HC’s Non-Communicable Diseases, Food Security and Nutrition Programme aims to undertake activities that contribute to the reduction of malnutrition and Non-Communicable Diseases in the ECSA region by promoting, tracking, and supporting the implementation and scaling of evidence-based relevant nutrition and Food Security policies and programmes in member states.

Good nutrition is central to the sustainable development agenda. In realizing this, ECSA-HC, through the Food and Nutrition Security Programme, implemented a regional food fortification program with support from USAID. The Food Fortification Initiative was a response to a Resolution passed by the ECSA-HC Ministers in 2002, which directed the Secretariat to “work with the countries to promote food fortification Initiatives”. The programme aimed at addressing the high level of micronutrient deficiencies facing the region. The project focus on strengthening countries capacities to monitor the quality, safety and impact of manufactured fortified and nutritious foods and facilitate the sharing of good and promising practices related to the thematic areas.

A number of milestones were realized throughout the implementation of the program including development of regional food fortification standards, development and adoption of food control manuals, establishment of regional laboratory proficiency network and capacity building of more than 100 government officials on designing and implementation of food fortification programs. To foster scale, ECSA-HC facilitated multi-stakeholder collaboration between Ministries of Health, Ministries of Agriculture, Ministries of Trade and the private sector across member states, which allowed multilateral sharing of resources such that the sum total of intervention inputs turned out to be greater than the individual contributions.

We will advise members in due course the exact timing of webinar events where ECSA-HC speakers will share with the Learning Network its scaling experiences and lessons learnt across the East, Central, and Southern African region.

Other networking engagements to look out for

The 2022 International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit which will take place in Morocco in December where an ExpandNet colleague will be organizing an auxiliary event on scaling. In case some of the Learning Network members might like to learn more about that multidisciplinary meeting, here is the link for more information: https://sbccsummit.org/en/

Newsletter content submissions

We continue to welcome items of one-paragraph length reporting on recent scaling experience, on research, and on upcoming events (with links, as appropriate). There is no deadline to when you can make your submissions; we will make sure members are updated as frequently as is necessary.

If you have questions or want to learn more about the Learning Network, I’d be happy to set up a time for you to speak with me (tendai@sparkhealthafrica.co.za) or an appropriate member of the Spark Health Africa team, anytime.
We’d love to continue the conversation about what we can do together to advance the vision and mission of the Learning Network over the next two years and beyond.
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