The Accelerator will conduct its second annual Health System Strengthening case competition in 2023. The Case Competition is an opportunity for USAID staff and partners working on health system strengthening (HSS) activities to showcase the work they are doing and the impact that their activities are having on health systems and health outcomes. Using real-life examples, the Case Competition will allow us to learn what does and does not work when implementing, institutionalizing, and scaling up health system programs and approaches. These case submissions will help inform USAID and its partners’ ongoing work and will contribute to learning syntheses and dissemination under the USAID HSS Learning Agenda to strengthen the global HSS evidence base.
The 2022 Case Competition received 24 entries from 15 countries. Three winners were selected by USAID and the Accelerator’s panel of judges and were invited to showcase their work during the Accelerator’s October 2022 Showcase Event.
Key Dates
ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
May 8 – June 9
WINNERS SELECTED
Week of June 26
DISSEMINATION EVENT
Week of July 10
Case Competition Information
USAID-funded or closely collaborating projects. The Accelerator will accept up to 30 complete submissions.
USAID staff and implementing partners are invited to submit a case study in the form of a poster highlighting work that speaks to one of the following questions:
- How have systems thinking approaches and tools been incorporated in activities to improve health equity? Were these approaches useful in achieving health equity goals? If so, what are the pathways by which these approaches helped to address the root causes of inequity?
- What are effective and sustainable mechanisms or processes to integrate local, community, sub-national, national, and regional voices, priorities, and contributions into health system strengthening efforts?
- What types of social and behavioral (SBC) changes or outcomes are commonly sought within health system strengthening projects or interventions? How are SBC methods useful in creating behavior or norm change among government, private sector, and community health system actors? What are lessons learned regarding explicitly incorporating SBC approaches within HSS programs?
Participants will submit a poster highlighting an activity relevant to one of the three themes above. In the poster, you will be asked to provide a summary of:
- The context in which the activity takes place and what challenge(s) prompted you to apply a the approach you selected
- A description of the activity
- What components of the health system have your activity impacted? (Refer to the USAID Vision for Health Strengthening 2030)
- Evidence of impact on intermediate or health outcomes
- Factors that enabled your approach, challenges that impacted your approach, and lessons you learned through this activity
Entries will be scored by two judges each from the Accelerator/R4D. Judging criteria will be standardized with a brief orientation meeting for all judges, and will include the degree to which the activity:
- Is intentional, systematic, and resourced
- The extent to which the entry responds or contributes to the relevant topic(s)
- Is part of a holistic approach, shifting focus from the individual health system “building blocks” to health system outcomes (i.e. equity, quality and resource optimization).
- Supports high-performing health care that is accountable, affordable, accessible, and reliable and/or contributes to health system equity, quality, and resource optimization
- Is locally-led and supports countries in the development of sustainable, resilient health systems
- Could potentially be adapted by others
- Has clarity of expression and story telling
The panel’s scores will be normalized along a Z-curve and averaged, and the top five entries will be submitted to a second panel including USAID reviewers. The second panel will select three winning entries.
The Accelerator will host a high-visibility event later in 2023 in which winners will be invited to present their case studies to an audience of other implementing partners, global stakeholders and funders.
All qualifying entries will be uploaded to the Accelerator’s website. The winning entries will be highlighted and receive additional publicity on social media.
General
What is the purpose of the USAID Case Competition?
- To allow USAID, country implementers, and global/regional stakeholders to learn what does and does not work when implementing, institutionalizing, and scaling up HSS activities and approaches in real-life examples.
- This competition also raises the global visibility of promising health systems approaches.
Do cases have to represent only USAID-funded work?
The specific activity must be connected to USAID, such as through funding, collaboration, or partnership.
In what languages can cases be submitted?
We can process and display cases in English or French.
Can I edit my entry once it has been submitted?
Due to the limited number of submissions that the organizers are able to receive, we are unable to accept any updates to your entry after your initial submission.
Eligibility/Submission
Are there limitations on when the case took place?
There are no time limits or restrictions.
Can we submit entries from U.S. government activities aside from USAID?
While the activity can be connected to other U.S. government activities, it must also be connected to USAID in some way.
What does “systems thinking” mean and how can we apply it to health?
Systems thinking is a set of analytic approaches and associated tools that seek to understand how systems function, evolve, behave, and interact with their environments and influence each other. Systems thinking can help us to understand the complexity of health systems by looking at them in terms of wholes and relationships, rather than as individual parts.
USAID defines health system strengthening as the strategies, responses, and activities that are designed to sustainably improve country health system performance by improving equity, quality, and resource optimization. These priority outcomes are defined as:
- Equity: An equitable health system affords every individual a fair opportunity to attain their highest level of health regardless of social or demographic factors, with particular emphasis on underserved, socially excluded, and vulnerable populations.
- Quality: A quality health system is responsive to patient and population needs and utilizes data-informed, continuous process improvement to consistently provide safe, effective, trusted, and equitable health care and medical products to improve and maintain health outcomes for all people.
- Resource Optimization: Resource optimization ensures that partner-country health systems adopt sustainable approaches to mobilize and use their various resources efficiently, effectively, and transparently to meet population health needs, where efficiency is determined both by the product derived from a given set of resources and the benefit obtained from their allocation.
Examples of activities that demonstrate systems thinking may include:
- Developing and implementing a national community health policy that recruits, trains, finances, and/or supports oversight of community health workers to increase people’s access to health services and improve equity, aligned with national health system human resource policies.
- Developing and rolling out an integrated, interoperable electronic health information management system that is a local adaptation of a global good and supports local digital systems governance capacity.
- Conducting implementation research to support the implementation and scale-up of a budgeting tool that helps health managers better forecast needs and budget resources across health programs.
Poster Template
Entries should be emailed to Leah Ewald at lewald@r4d.org with the list of authors, organization, and the theme in the body of the email.
