This month, the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition is pleased to announce the addition of ten new awards to its research portfolio. The awards cover a period of 14 months, which will conclude in August of 2022. During that time, the recipients, who are based in nine countries across Africa, South Asia, and the Pacific, will each conduct implementation research falling into one of two categories: campaign integration (either full or partial), and transition to the primary health care (PHC) system.
“We were very impressed with the quality of proposals we received, and we are thrilled to fund these new projects,” said Dr. Kristin Saarlas, Director for the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition. “ Each is addressing important research questions that will provide new learnings on how to plan, implement and evaluate health campaigns . We look forward to the awardees sharing their preliminary findings at our October 2022 Coalition Meeting.”
The awards bring the Coalition’s research portfolio to a total of 20 projects, including eight case studies (see the full list of case study awardees here) and two additional projects.
“Our Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and Campaign Integration Working Group saw great potential in these projects to answer key questions of the national ministries around campaign integration and transition or mainstreaming to primary health care systems,” said Eva Bazant, Senior Associate Director of Implementation Research for the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition. “There’s a diversity across the contexts of the campaigns being assessed across 9 countries in regions of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and representing the health domains of neglected tropical diseases, immunizations/polio, malaria and vitamin A.”
The ten implementation research projects are:
Campaign Integration
1. Rwanda: “Use of predictive analytics and a web data management platform for integrated health campaign micro planning and achieving better health campaign efficiency and effectiveness in Rwanda” conducted by Connecti3 LLC
This project will explore the possibility of using AI predictive analytics to better identify communities that need health campaign services but are not currently being reached by routine care. It will focus primarily on the distribution of vitamin A supplementation.
View the project launch presentation here.
2. Bangladesh: “Implementation Research in Health Campaign Effectiveness in Bangladesh: A Retrospective Study of Campaign Integration in Immunization” conducted by James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University
This project aims to identify the factors that led immunization campaigns to be integrated with other health campaigns, including vitamin A supplementation and deworming. The team will look at enabling and hindering factors of integrated health campaigns at numerous levels of the PHC system, the effect of integration on delivery outcomes, and ways that components of integrated campaigns can be applied to strengthen PHC systems.
View the project launch presentation here.
3. Nigeria: “Improving Vitamin A Coverage through integration with Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention delivery: An Implementation Research in rural and urban settings in Nigeria” conducted by the Malaria Consortium
This project will investigate the effect of full integration of SMC with VAS at scale on a number of factors, including vitamin A coverage, SMC coverage, safety, equity, efficiency and cost.
View the project launch presentation here.
4. Ethiopia: “Evaluating the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of the fully integrated campaign of two mass drug administrations and three other complementary health interventions (2MDA+3): A pragmatic implementation research in Ethiopia” conducted by Jimma University
This project aims to determine the effectiveness of co-delivery of two core Mass Drug Distributions (2MDA+4) for STH/deworming and onchocerciasis with four campaigns (LLIN, WASH, unvaccinated/ dropout tracking and COVID-19 awareness). In particular, the team will look at the implementation factors and process outcomes at different levels of the health system and community, and study the effect of full integration on health in the Jimma zone.
View the project launch presentation here.
Transition to Primary Health Systems
5. Ghana: “Improving the Effectiveness of Mass Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Net Distribution Campaigns Through Community-based Health Planning and Services Programme in Ghana” conducted by the University of Ghana’s School of Public Health
This malaria-focused project will explore whether the Mass LLIN Distribution Campaign’s effectiveness can be improved through transition to Community-based Health Planning and Services Programme (CHPS) in Ghana.
View the project launch presentation here.
6. Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu: “Building the links between campaigns and PHC: Evaluating serosurveillance and PHC referral during integrated NTD campaigns in two countries of the Western Pacific” conducted by Bridges to Development
This project will investigate whether routine M&E activities for disease specific programs can be leveraged to provide serosurveillance for multiple cross-program and emerging health priorities to help inform country level decision making. The team will also explore whether campaigns can refer individuals with severe skin diseases into primary health care and health information systems for diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance.
View the project launch presentation here.
7. Cameroon: “Challenges and Opportunities of partial integration of ivermectin mass drug administration into Cameroonian primary health care system” conducted by Centre for Research on Filariasis and other Tropical Diseases
This project will research the challenges and opportunities of partial integration of ivermectin mass drug administration for onchocerciasis prevention into the primary health care system for continuous availability.
View the project launch presentation here.
8. Ethiopia: “Integrating NTD campaign interventions into the Primary Health Care System: an exploratory implementation research in Ethiopia” conducted by Eyu-Ethiopia
This project will study the preconditions and strategies for facilitating partial or full integration of NTD (trachoma and other) activities into the PHC in Ethiopia.
View the project launch presentation here.
9. Côte d’Ivoire: “Assessment of the Transition of Vitamin A Supplementation and Deworming (SVAD) in the Routine Health Care System/Évaluation de la transition de la supplémentation en vitamine A et déparasitant (SVAD) dans le système de soins de santé de routine” conducted by Helen Keller International
This project will study whether health campaign inputs, processes and resources can be used successfully to strengthen mainstream services, including routine vitamin A supplementation and deworming (SVAD) and impact PHC systems.
View the project launch presentation here.
10. Nigeria: “Evaluating a transition to government ownership of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth control programs in four districts in Nigeria” conducted by The Carter Center
This NTD-focused project will research how the treatment coverage of district SCH/STH programs in Nigeria changes when the districts are transitioned from partial support by an external partner to full support by the various levels of government involved in school-based mebendazole and praziquantel distribution. In particular, the team will look at how the responsibilities and the mechanics of MDA among staff from throughout the local health system will be affected.