Learning Platforms to Strengthen Partnerships and Outcomes for MTCT Reduction
Since September 2013, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) has been leading the Partnership for HIV Free Survival (PHFS) initiative in 30 health facilities in 3 districts. The USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems project’s (ASSIST) role in PHFS is to institute quality improvement (QI) learning systems and to develop a change package that focuses on mother-baby pair health services’ attendance for improved enrollment and retention within HIV services, among other things.
National Learning Platforms were planned as part of a QI framework for PHFS, designed by Tanzanian PHFS National Steering Committee under the global leadership of the USAID ASSIST Project. Held twice a year, the learning platform brings together MOHSW officials, donors, implementing partners, health care providers, and community health workers to share experiences and to learn new changes for improvement of PHFS and non-PHFS intervention areas. The two learning platforms used knowledge management principles to ensure effective integration and transfer of knowledge among participants and made use of small group discussion, brainstorming, role playing and buzz grouping. Groups visited health facilities to observe and learn from health care providers implementing PHFS and shared what they learned during site visits with the whole group after. The result of the two platforms was a scale-up package. It included changes considered most important in producing improvements, identified through a ranking process by the three districts. These changes are now being used in 60 new sites for PHFS, and the scale-up package has been shared with all partners.
This case study was submitted as part of USAID's CLA Case Competition, held in August 2015. Taken together, this collection of submissions illustrates the diversity of ways collaborating, learning, and adapting approaches are being operationalized in the field. Stringent judging criteria was used to determine official CLA Case Competition winners, so not all submissions should be considered an official USAID endorsement of best practice. To view all entries, visit the CLA Case Competition page.