The facilitation team
As one year ends, another begins. it’s the perfect time to take stock of our communities of practice!
As one year ends, another begins. it’s the perfect time to take stock of our communities of practice!
If you are reading this blog post, you are most likely already part of our CoPs. Our communities continue to grow. The Financial Access to Health Services CoP exceeded the threshold of 1,000 members a few weeks ago. During 2016, the Performance-Based Financing CoP has reached 2,000 members. We attribute this success to the quality of our activities and exchanges. Let us review together some of our accomplishments in 2016.
2016 Activities
As you see from week to week, our online discussion forums remain active. Thank you all for sharing your experiences, knowledge and opportunities so generously!
Launched more than five years ago, our Health Financing in Africa blog continues to be a reference site for all those who are passionate about health financing in Africa (we will publish some statistics in the coming days). In recent months, we have expanded the database of contributors, by opening our blog to new bloggers (if you are interested in joining the team, this is the place to apply). This has already given us some interesting interviews, notably that of Matthew Jowett and Hyacinthe Kankeu Tchewonpi - the subject of corruption in the health services appealed to many of you.
The big digital development for our CoPs was the launch of our new Collectivity collaborative platform. Collectivity has grown throughout 2016 – but since the platform was in beta, we were relatively discreet about it. Thank you to those of you who as first users helped us to make improvements. From now on, we will use Collectivity almost systematically. If you have not yet created your profile on what will no doubt become the LinkedIn of the CoPs, it is probably time to do so. The main purpose of this platform is to encourage more of you to get involved in the various projects of the CoPs and to ensure that you benefit from your participation.
In 2016, we also generated new knowledge on several issues of interest. Experts from six countries have finalized the study on systemic learning for Universal Health Coverage. These results have already been presented in several countries and at international conferences. In the coming months, we will share the results of this multi-country research on our sites. Notably, this study also accelerated the creation of CoP hubs in several countries. We will tell you more about these developments soon on this blog.
A number of you have also contributed to the study on scaling-up of performance-based financing (coordination: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and Institute of Tropical Medicine). Either you were directly involved in this study as a researcher, or you supported it as a key informant. The CoPs will soon be sharing of the results of these country studies. This will include a series of webinars starting in January. You can already book your afternoons on 18 and 20 January. We’ll get back to you very soon with more details.
In 2016, we also began to focus on strategic purchasing. In partnership with WHO, we organized a first working meeting in Rabat. The results of this meeting were presented in a blog post and a short report. This orientation is ... strategic for our CoPs and will be consolidated in 2017. We will tell you more in a few weeks.
Finally, we completed the year with a meeting in Antwerp with the facilitators of the various CoPs and country hubs. Stay tuned for the lessons that emerged from this meeting.
A busy program for 2017
Our program for 2017 is busy. In addition to the activities mentioned above, here are some highlights to come.
At the beginning of 2017, the PBF CoP will launch its RBF Atlas project. In the coming weeks, each country with an RBF experience will be invited to set up a team and register for this project. Our ambition is to make it the most inclusive collaborative project in CoP history.
With the PBF CoP, we are also tackling various central issues for the future of PBF. We are thinking in particular of the need for a more efficient audit process (you will certainly remember the blog of Matthieu Antony on this subject). A working group will be set up shortly. We also intend to launch a major initiative on quality of care with countries involved in PBF.
We will also continue to work on the development of CoPs. In the weeks to come, experts from the FAHS CoP will be invited to participate in a study on the barriers that women encounter to participate in CoP activities. We will also support the activities organized by the national hubs. In 2017, the facilitation of the CoPs is moving more and more towards you!
Wishes for 2017
This new year looks exciting. Our first wish is to continue, with all of you, to transform the management and production of knowledge on our themes of interest in global health... by giving an even greater role to our collective intelligence. We wish you a year 2017 full of challenges and achievements, both inside and outside the CoPs. And of course we wish you what remains essential to all: excellent health.
