Dear HIFA colleagues,
In my previous message I forgot to put the URL of the ‘rapid evidence review on the effectiveness of institutional health partnerships’. Here it is:
https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12992-015-0133-9
I have had an opportunity to read the full text, and would like to make three observations (beyond those made in the abstract):
1. As might be expected, the review did not provide any insights into the drivers and barriers of effectiveness of health partnerships. Because of this, it would have limited value as guidance for individual partnerships. (That said, the review does provide some pointers on moving beyond routine monitoring and evaluation).
2. The paper reveals a clear need for stronger health partnership research to support what many health partnerships observe informally. The Catch-22, however, is that health partnerships typically receive very modest funding, which usually constrains assessment to routine M&E. Funding agencies need to up their game and support new, independent health partnerships research.
3. The paper notes three relevant systematic reviews which confirmed ‘the current standard of literature on which their reviews were based did not meet the high standards of formal academic rigour. I shall introduce these three systematic reviews in a subsequent message.
Best wishes, Neil
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Isabelle
Many thanks for sharing these important resolutions. The second one (on digital health [http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_ACONF1-en.pdf]) is obviously highly relevant to the interests of the the mHIFA Working Group and provides a number of opportunities for further engagement.
Geoff