Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACTStrategic purchasing means deliberately directing health funds to priority populations, interventions, and services. This is done by actively creating incentives so funding is used equitably and efficiently and is aligned with population health needs. Strategic purchasing is a complex policy...

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Main Authors: Agnes Gatome-Munyua, Charlemagne Tapsoba, Cheryl Cashin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2022-03-01
Series:Health Systems & Reform
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23288604.2022.2051793
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author Agnes Gatome-Munyua
Charlemagne Tapsoba
Cheryl Cashin
author_facet Agnes Gatome-Munyua
Charlemagne Tapsoba
Cheryl Cashin
author_sort Agnes Gatome-Munyua
collection DOAJ
description ABSTRACTStrategic purchasing means deliberately directing health funds to priority populations, interventions, and services. This is done by actively creating incentives so funding is used equitably and efficiently and is aligned with population health needs. Strategic purchasing is a complex policy area fraught with challenging technical, institutional, and political issues. Policy makers and practitioners are an important source of tacit knowledge—experiential knowledge that is context specific and gained over time. Collaborative learning, through which a group of peers jointly problem-solves and generates lessons and solutions that can be adapted to different country contexts, is an important way to advance collective understanding of how to make progress on strategic purchasing within the unique health financing systems of sub-Saharan Africa. The Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC), a resource hub hosted by AMREF Health Africa with technical support from Results for Development, is facilitating a collaborative learning agenda among 11 technical partners in 10 countries. SPARC and the technical partners are generating new insights and practical lessons to inform country policy and regional discourse on how to better use strategic purchasing to advance progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). This paper summarizes lessons and best practices from SPARC’s collaborative learning approach that can benefit others who are seeking to apply a similar approach to share tacit learning on strategic purchasing and UHC.
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spelling doaj.art-e5b2a4d600574259adc2efe3077c1f332023-02-02T21:30:23ZengTaylor & Francis GroupHealth Systems & Reform2328-86042328-86202022-03-018210.1080/23288604.2022.2051793Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan AfricaAgnes Gatome-Munyua0Charlemagne Tapsoba1Cheryl Cashin2Department of Health, Results for Development, Nairobi, KenyaDepartment of Health Research, Recherche pour la Santé et le Développement (RESADE), Ouagadougou, Burkina FasoDepartment of Health, Results for Development, Washington, DC, USAABSTRACTStrategic purchasing means deliberately directing health funds to priority populations, interventions, and services. This is done by actively creating incentives so funding is used equitably and efficiently and is aligned with population health needs. Strategic purchasing is a complex policy area fraught with challenging technical, institutional, and political issues. Policy makers and practitioners are an important source of tacit knowledge—experiential knowledge that is context specific and gained over time. Collaborative learning, through which a group of peers jointly problem-solves and generates lessons and solutions that can be adapted to different country contexts, is an important way to advance collective understanding of how to make progress on strategic purchasing within the unique health financing systems of sub-Saharan Africa. The Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC), a resource hub hosted by AMREF Health Africa with technical support from Results for Development, is facilitating a collaborative learning agenda among 11 technical partners in 10 countries. SPARC and the technical partners are generating new insights and practical lessons to inform country policy and regional discourse on how to better use strategic purchasing to advance progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). This paper summarizes lessons and best practices from SPARC’s collaborative learning approach that can benefit others who are seeking to apply a similar approach to share tacit learning on strategic purchasing and UHC.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23288604.2022.2051793Collaborative learninghealth financingknowledge translationSPARCstrategic health purchasing
spellingShingle Agnes Gatome-Munyua
Charlemagne Tapsoba
Cheryl Cashin
Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
Health Systems & Reform
Collaborative learning
health financing
knowledge translation
SPARC
strategic health purchasing
title Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_fullStr Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full_unstemmed Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_short Collaborative Learning to Advance Knowledge and Implementation of Strategic Health Purchasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_sort collaborative learning to advance knowledge and implementation of strategic health purchasing in sub saharan africa
topic Collaborative learning
health financing
knowledge translation
SPARC
strategic health purchasing
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23288604.2022.2051793
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AT charlemagnetapsoba collaborativelearningtoadvanceknowledgeandimplementationofstrategichealthpurchasinginsubsaharanafrica
AT cherylcashin collaborativelearningtoadvanceknowledgeandimplementationofstrategichealthpurchasinginsubsaharanafrica