About US
Who We Are
The Implementation Science Collaborative (ISC) is formal and expandable partnership which brings together diverse local, national and global health actors (implementers, advocates, policy-makers, researchers, and donors) committed to improving the use of real-time evidence for the implementation and advancement of health policies and programs in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The ISC is rooted in the understanding that the use of evidence to influence policy and program creation and adaptation is not automatic, nor does it occur at a single point in time. Instead it requires the systematic involvement of multiple actors representing an extensive array of skillsets and experiences, committed to active long-term engagement. Steeped in this commitment to meaningful partnership, the ISC therefore seeds and capacitates topic-specific implementation science collaborations, composed of these diverse stakeholders who are committed to working together to overcome the challenges of bringing evidence into the design and improvement of public health policy and programs.
The Problem We are Looking to Solve
The creation of the ISC responds to the growing need for more sustainable, inclusive partnership platforms that facilitate the use of evidence to improve health interventions, practices, programs, and policies. However, despite the best intentions, even where the research has been done, and evidence exists about what is needed to improve health and welfare in communities, it is often not widely understood or implemented. These gaps arise for a variety of reasons. However, the most acute reason is that the right stakeholders are not engaged at the appropriate time, resulting in a disconnect between those who produce and those intended to use evidence to inform change. The lag time or disconnect between creating evidence and using it to create or adapt programs or policies, results in both waste in the system and loss of opportunity to improve health outcomes for individuals and communities.
How We Work
Solving this problem of disconnects requires the creation of a neutral space which can successfully bring the myriad disparate stakeholders together united with a common goal, and empowering them with the capacity support needed to do so. ISC partners work in concert to accelerate the development or scale-up of context specific interventions by engaging in-country community leaders, researchers, and policymakers to understand the community’s core needs, link to global experts who have addressed similar issues across various contexts, and provide context specific advocacy needed to drive the decision-making of policymakers and implementers. Through the fostering a community of stakeholders dedicated to advancing the use of evidence in decision-making, ISC partners work together to achieve their collective vision of a world in which appropriate, timely, and contextualized evidence informs the development and implementations of every intervention, practice, program, and policy which impacts health. Through trust, understanding, and mutual respect these long-term relationships will allow us to solve both the problems of today and tomorrow.
The Implementation Science Collaborative (ISC) is an unincorporated partnership under development with the support of USAID’s Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development (HEARD) Project and its implementing partners.
