Characteristics of Survey Respondents
Forty-seven individuals who represent 16 countries responded to the survey. The respondents represent NGOs (38%), academic institutions (26%), private sector organizations (13%), government (12%), foundation or philanthropic organizations (7%), and multilateral organizations (4%).
Meeting Attendee Experiences
Most respondents (62%) heard about the Annual Meeting through email from a member of the HCE Program Office. Eighty-seven percent of survey respondents attended meeting sessions, and of them 66% attended the opening panel discussion “Country Perspectives on Campaign Collaboration” and 56% attended the closing panel discussion “Perspectives from the HCE Leadership Team.”
The sessions titled “Campaign Integration with the PHC System” and “Experiences in Campaign Integration” were the most attended breakout sessions. Respondents were satisfied with communication with event planners, registration, and the quality of session presentations. The overall experience can benefit from more discussion time, a single platform for meeting and networking, in addition to more instruction on how to navigate the meeting platform.
A few themes, in regard to what was learned or appreciated among respondents, included: networking opportunities; expertise of the speakers; discussion on community engagement; discussions on costing; and ability to move from one room to another; and more.
HCE Priorities for 2022
When asked to prioritize Coalition activities for 2022, 74% of respondents indicated the Coalition “support additional country implementation research on campaign integration and transitioning campaigns into PHC services.” Sixty percent of respondents indicated the Coalition “synthesize and disseminate evidence on promising practices and effective tools from countries and partner organizations.”
Related to digitizing campaign components, 70% of respondents indicated digital tools for real-time monitoring is a priority, while 61% indicated geospatial mapping techniques for microplanning is a priority.
Comments included:
“Develop simplified digital mechanisms for mapping and analysis of cold chain equipment and mapping of healthcare workers during the planning phase of mass vaccination campaigns.”
“Digitalization is important but testing its feasibility in different contexts is very important.”
In the survey, the HCE Program Office shared campaign integration tools resources could be expanded beyond the decision tool that is currently available. When asked to prioritize topics that could be the focus of additional components to a campaign integration toolkit, 82% of respondents selected ‘monitoring and evaluation,’ 73% of respondents selected ‘financing and cost-sharing,’ 61% selected ‘community and stakeholder mapping,’ and 59% of respondents selected ‘microplanning.’
Comments included:
“Without adequate and detailed planning (macro and micro) you can’t have a successful campaign.”
“Advocacy is a critical skill set of planning and managing campaigns that is overlooked as it is considered a “soft skill” but sometimes it’s the soft skills that can make or break a campaign’s success.”
Seventy-two percent of respondents indicated that the Coalition “develop and/or promote a tool to assess the readiness of the PHC system to integrate services otherwise provided primarily through health campaigns” a high-priority topic related to transition of campaigns to the PHC system.
Comments included:
“Aside from readiness assessment tools, ministries of health need evidence that can trigger critical thinking and decisions to pilot or replicate promising practices toward sustainable undertakings with the established health care delivery system.”
The steps the Coalition can take to promote equity across health campaigns include: supporting research on barriers and enablers to equitable campaigns; build evidence of inequalities and identify resolution strategies; and promote equitable gender and minority representation from planning stage onward.
Per respondents, roles the Coalition can plan in serving the “zero-dose” or “never reached” population include: supporting the identification, enumeration and monitoring of these populations; supporting research to identify barriers to and effective strategies for reaching these populations; and facilitating engagement of these communities and those who understand the barriers (e.g., terrain, norms, beliefs).
HCE Workgroups
When asked about workgroups, respondents indicated community engagement, campaign outcome measures beyond coverage, and transitioning campaigns to PHC systems are very important workgroups to initiate.
Future HCE Coalition Events
Respondents expressed interest in learning more about campaign measures beyond coverage, transiting campaigns to PHC systems, and campaign digitization and digital tools in future HCE Coalition events. Respondents suggested more interactive sessions on how campaigns are effectively conducted in low- and middle-income countries and those in conflict zones, in addition to workshops in community engagement and microplanning would foster engagement and learning in future HCE Coalition events.
The HCE program office is busy finalizing the 2022 Action Plan with the HCE Leadership Team, and will share it with the Coalition via the HCE newsletter ‘Intersections’ in January 2022.