In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in applying traditional business principles to global health. The advent of international development organizations with significant expertise in the private sector — including social venture capital groups such as Acumen Fund, and private initiatives, such as the Gates Foundation — has helped to create an opportunity for such activities to flourish. However, there is a dearth of literature describing the operations of health delivery agencies in resource-poor settings. Little has been written, in these contexts, on financial models, revenue generation, management structures, process improvement, and the decisions around scaling up— issues that are intrinsic to the health and success of all organizations. The ability to design effective funding models, technical assistance, and capacity building activities, among other things, depends on the understanding of implementers’ needs. Thus, a baseline assessment in these domains is urgently needed. Building on its experience with G-Lab GHD, GHD has developed an assessment tool that will measure basic operational capacities of health delivery programs. Fundamentally, the purpose of the project is to roughly measure the sophistication of organizations in a variety of domains, including finances, human resources, logistics, and leadership.
We seek students working in health abroad this summer to conduct the research
Among current undergraduate and graduate students, interest in global health has reached new heights. Students are independently seeking out opportunities to work in health delivery abroad, and institutions are building funding programs and international partnerships to accommodate them. We intend to work with students, primarily from Harvard and MIT, to conduct the survey with their host organization. Many students spend about two months at their host sites, providing them with an opportunity to learn about operational capacity and to build relationships that facilitate thorough and accurate survey completion. Students will join a community on GHDonline dedicated to the survey and input the responses into an online form. All responses will be confidential and no identifying data will be shared.
Dissemination of findings
GHD will analyze the data in the fall and put together a presentation sharing significant findings. It will use the results to better understand how it can meet the needs of its target populations; for example, by adding new resources, design features or communities to GHDonline and informing the focus of programs and preparatory activities for courses like G-Lab GHD. In addition, GHD believes that the survey results may challenge existing assumptions driving technical assistance and training programs and motivate discussions on how to improve policy and aid models. Depending on interest levels, GHD hopes to engage several students or student groups in the analysis and dissemination of findings.
Understanding health delivery at the operational level is crucial for building effective health systems. This survey will demonstrate the potential knowledge to be gained from this type of research endeavor, including the range of capacities within developing countries and patterns of unmet needs. GHD hopes that this relatively modest effort will generate more rigorous and comprehensive studies of this type.
TONIGHT ONLY: Learn more about this project and opportunities for students tonight at a GHD event at Harvard College. Hosted by several student groups, including the Harvard AIDS Coalition, Harvard Project for Sustainable Development, and Harvard’s Chapter of Support for International Change, the event will feature a case discussion on the Center for Infection Disease Research: Scaling up AIDS Treatment in Zambia, followed by an overview of the operational capacity project. The event will take place tonight at 8:00pm in the Lamont Library Forum Room, Harvard College. Please contact tnorman@fas.harvard.edu for more information.
To learn more about the project, please contact Maria May at maria_may@hms.harvard.edu.
