ACHIEVE shares its experience in evaluating complex health and social systems at the 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

Strengthening health and social systems is crucial for building equitable, quality, and well-resourced systems that center people, especially vulnerable populations. On November 18-22, 2024, Health Systems Global (HSG) hosted a vibrant program to address this theme during its 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR 2024) held in Nagasaki, Japan. The Symposium marked an extraordinary opportunity for global practitioners, researchers, and advocates from multilateral, bilateral, governmental, academic, and civil institutions to join one another in their shared commitment to advancing health and social systems that prioritize people and the planet.

Participating in this year’s discussion was ACHIEVE MEL Advisor, Kyaw Thura Tun, who engaged audiences through his insights and experiences on implementing Outcome Harvesting (OH) in Nigeria and Zambia from 2022 to 2024. In both countries, the government provides health and social services to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their families to achieve and sustain HIV epidemic control. ACHIEVE supports their social service systems by strengthening organizational and technical capacities to deliver quality OVC services. Through his presentation titled, “Overcoming knowledge barriers in social and health systems strengthening: Using the Outcome Harvesting approach to evaluate complex systems,” Kyaw shared best practices, challenges, and lessons learned from ACHIEVE’s experience implementing OH. During the discussion, he reflected on knowledge generation and use for social and health systems in assessing sustainability and driving evidence-based decision-making for OVC services.

“Health and social systems are complex and consist of interconnected elements,” Kyaw said. “Traditional quantitative methods often fail to capture the inherent complexities of system changes.” Kyaw explained that in the context of transforming the inclusion of program recipients, ACHIEVE adopted the OH approach as a participatory and context-driven method for assessing the project’s contributions to strengthening health and social systems, particularly in addressing knowledge silos across various levels. “Using this approach enabled us to identify how systems strengthening efforts can enhance community awareness of OVC case management processes and improve access to OVC services within communities,” he said.

The symposium was a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, foster networking, and reflect on innovative solutions and approaches to some of the most pressing challenges in health and social systems strengthening. By sharing ACHIEVE’s insights and experiences, Kyaw aimed to increase knowledge surrounding this issue and promote the importance of collaborative and contextually informed approaches in driving social and health systems changes.

Following HSR 2024, Kyaw has learned that the road to building equitable, quality, and well-resourced health systems is challenging, but what he witnessed in the energy, inspiration, and passion shared at HSR 2024, reaffirms that meaningful system changes are possible.

Learn more about ACHIEVE's systems strengthening impact in Zambia.