Scaling-up is a craft not a science
Catalysing scale-up of health innovations in Ethiopia, India and Nigeria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4829330 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Neil Spicer (0000-0003-3451-8003, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, corresponding author), Dipankar Bhattacharya (0000-0002-4737-9818), Ritgak Dimka (0000-0001-9546-4243), Feleke Fanta, Lindsay Mangham-Jefferies (0000-0002-7292-6342, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), J Schellenberg (0000-0002-0708-3676, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Addis Tamire-Woldemariam (0000-0002-6474-0054, Federal Ministry of Health), Gill Walt (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Deepthi Wickremasinghe (0000-0002-3766-0745, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 121 |
| Pages | 30-38 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science & Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.046 |
| PMID | 25306407 |
| OpenAlex | W2157285673 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
| References cited | 17 |
Donors and other development partners commonly introduce innovative practices and technologies to improve health in low and middle income countries. Yet many innovations that are effective in improving health and survival are slow to be translated into policy and implemented at scale. Understanding the factors influencing scale-up is important. We conducted a qualitative study involving 150 semi-structured interviews with government, development partners, civil society organisations and externally funded implementers, professional associations and academic institutions in 2012/13 to explore scale-up of innovative interventions targeting mothers and newborns in Ethiopia, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and the six states of northeast Nigeria, which are settings with high burdens of maternal and neonatal mortality. Interviews were analysed using a common analytic framework developed for cross-country comparison and themes were coded using Nvivo. We found that programme implementers across the three settings require multiple steps to catalyse scale-up. Advocating for government to adopt and finance health innovations requires: designing scalable innovations; embedding scale-up in programme design and allocating time and resources; building implementer capacity to catalyse scale-up; adopting effective approaches to advocacy; presenting strong evidence to support government decision making; involving government in programme design; invoking policy champions and networks; strengthening harmonisation among external programmes; aligning innovations with health systems and priorities. Other steps include: supporting government to develop policies and programmes and strengthening health systems and staff; promoting community uptake by involving media, community leaders, mobilisation teams and role models. We conclude that scale-up has no magic bullet solution - implementers must embrace multiple activities, and require substantial support from donors and governments in doing so
Capacity building · Civil society · Craft · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Political science · Psychological intervention · Public health · Public relations · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Global Maternal and Child Health · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Medicine · Nursing · Health Policy
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Policy change and learning
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Has Global Fund support for civil society advocacy in the Former Soviet Union established meaningful engagement or 'a lot of jabber about nothing
Scaling up in international health
Understanding pathways for scaling up health services through the lens of complex adaptive systems
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| Citations per year | 2.3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |