An interview by Isidore Sieleunou
For the Financial Access to Health Services CoP, 2017 is a year of transitions. Allison Kelley is leaving her role as facilitator to direct a new international project supporting Universal Health Coverage…. Isidore, who has co-facilitated with Allison since the beginning, catches up with her. It is a moment to say thank you to Allison and to learn more about her new project. And clearly, our paths will be crossing often!
Allison, since 2011 you have been one of the pioneers promoting the concept of communities of practice in global health, most notably through your role in growing the Financial Access to Health Services CoP (FAHS CoP). Today, you are starting a new challenge; can you tell us about it?
In fact, it is a perfect continuation of what I have been passionate about for some time now, so I am thrilled. I joined Results for Development, a young institute working globally in health and education, but with an explicit strategy of supporting local change agents and building and sharing knowledge. I am directing a new project called "African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions" that aims to strengthen the dynamic of participation and knowledge sharing around UHC in sub-Saharan Africa, while building countries’ capacity to translate knowledge into action to make real progress towards UHC.
Can you tell us more about this project?
It’s a five-year project (2017-2022) financed by USAID that focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. Its overall objective is of course to advance UHC at the country level, but by focusing on the UHC process. By this, I mean to say that despite high levels of political will, countries are still facing serious obstacles in the process of implementing UHC that are impeding progress– for example, a lack of involvement of certain key stakeholders, or poor communication around UHC, or even problems “operationalizing” certain strategies or tools meant to advance UHC. These challenges are country-specific, and so our approach is to support countries to test, adapt, and scale evidence-based solutions to move UHC implementation forward.
How is this project different that all the other interventions around UHC today?
It is true that there are many actors and activities working on UHC; we are very cognizant of that…We are seeking to amplify the ownership and impact of these existing interventions. We do not have an agenda of our own; our value-added is to support a collaborative learning process at country level for UHC, building on what is already there. We work to strengthen countries’ capacity (and at the regional level) to facilitate this UHC process, to mobilize key stakeholders around a common agenda for better accountability, and to adapt existing tools and strategies to the country context to make tangible progress toward UHC. We will, of course, support cross-country learning opportunities as well, which tend to stimulate new ideas, as the CoP experience has demonstrated…Regional organizations and networks also have an important role to play in this learning approach to support country progress that we think is underleveraged today. We hope to engage them proactively in this project.
So, what has actually been done and what are the next steps? Have you got deadlines?
We have only just begun! We have put in place a great team of African and international experts who are working now on developing the methodology for a consultation phase. This consultation is meant to listen first and foremost to country perspectives and priorities, as well as those from regional initiatives and from partners. This phase, which will go from May to October, is pivotal: we will build our project based on the real priorities and challenges countries are facing in implementing UHC policies. We do not have predetermined solutions or interventions! We are going to listen first. A regional launch workshop is planned for late Fall in Africa to share the results of our consultation phase and to collaboratively develop our project activities based on what we have heard. Country voices are thus our primary focus!
Why should countries be interested in being part of this project, or do you already know with which countries you will work?
This project should interest countries wanting to strengthen their country capacities to lead their own UHC process, and to better make use of evidence and existing tools to move UHC forward on the ground. We have not identified the countries with which we will work; in fact, we think it is essential to do that in a collaborative fashion. So those countries interested in this kind of iterative learning approach to UHC should speak up! And we as a project team will also take a learning, iterative approach. We will start by working in a few countries to test and learn before moving to a larger scale… But simultaneously, and depending on the needs expressed, we will support regional learning exchanges to spur progress on key priority themes. So hopefully through working both at the country and regional levels, we be able to mobilize the participation of all interested countries…
Of course the FAHS CoP is sad to see you go as a facilitator. Do you see collaboration possibilities for the CoPs with your new project? If so, what might they be?
Yes! The CoPs are truly unique in that they bring together thousands of African experts. So, they are obviously a great sounding board for our project. I would also say that the “CoP approach” of collaboration and co-production is an integral part of this project – I would even say that the CoPs inspired the Collaborative to some degree. But beyond our shared principles, I see the CoPs as potential partners in our support to regional learning activities, and even to country UHC processes, especially where there exists a CoP Hub. I also see them as a channel for cross-country learning through disseminating the evidence and experience that will be produced during the project, and through keeping a critical eye on our activities. We will of course discuss these different possibilities for collaboration with the CoPs in more depth during the consultation phase, but I feel confident that this is not goodbye!
