doris duke charitable foundation african health initiative
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Doris Duke Charitable FoundationDoris Duke Charitable FoundationAfrican Health InitiativeAfrican Health Initiative
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Mission
Improving the quality of people's lives through:
• The performing arts • Environmental conservation• Medical research • The prevention of child maltreatment • Preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of
Doris Duke's properties
Challenge from Foundation’s Board
• Ideas for new grantmaking initiatives – fit within foundation’s general grant making
programs, but be “new and catalytic”
• In 2007, two $100 million initiatives were launched.– Environment Program - Climate Change
Initiative– Medical Research Program - African Health
Initiative
African Health Initiative
Goal: To help catalyze a shift from the current focus on single disease programs, to an emphasis on strengthening health systems that are able to deliver integrated primary care to underserved populations
Specific Aims:• Increase the knowledge required for evidence-based health systems
planning
• Achieve significant, measurable health improvements in up to 6 communities/districts in sub-Saharan Africa
• Strengthen health systems in those regions in a manner that enables local and national governments to sustain those improvements
Approach:
• Fund up to 6 Population Health Implementation and Training (PHIT) Partnerships
• $8 to $16 million each to support:– Delivery of integrated primary health care to
populations of >250,000 – Strengthening of regional health systems – Implementation research to measure what
works
Implementation Research
• Each PHIT Partnership is expected to design an implementation research plan that includes:
- Program evaluation
- Economic evaluation and;
- Monitoring and operations research.
• Implementation Research Framework - developed by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation provides a starting point for applicants.
PHIT Partnership Selection Process
February 200829 teams invited to submit planning grant proposals
October 2008Awarded 6 month Planning Grants to 11 teams
June 2009Award PHIT Implementation Grants to up to 6 teams
September 2007Call for Letters of Interest
The Challenge: Translating Evidence to Policy
• What information is needed?– Within the original country– Before transfer to another country
• How to evaluate conflicting evidence?
• What happens when evidence conflicts with current accepted practice?
The role of science academies
• Sifting all evidence
• Analyzing the reasons for disparate results
• Looking at context—can one country’s success be transferred across borders?
• Challenging projects like this one to produce evidence of maximum utility