ECSA-HC: Exemplifying a Critical Role in the Implementation Science Collaborative
East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) celebrated their 50th anniversary (Golden Jubilee) through a series of events in Arusha, Tanzania this past June. In conjunction, URC recognizes more than a decade of collaboration, including eight years of ECSA-HC serving as sub-regional anchor partner in the Implementation Science Collaborative (ISC). ECSA-HC’s regional member state platform and collaborative efforts with other countries in the region exemplify a locally driven and participatory evidence-to-policy platform.
As Jim Sherry (pictured)—Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development (HEARD) Project Director—stated during the opening remarks of the 73rd Health Minister’s Conference (HMC) in Arusha this June, “The shortest distance from new evidence to well-informed policy is through regional platforms like ECSA-HC.”“
ECSA-HC plays a critical role in the evidence-to-action continuum, notably through their stakeholder convening power, direct access to ministries and experts within their nine member states, and their annual Best Practices Forums and Health Ministers conferences. ECSA-HC secretariat cultivates multi-country partnerships that identify and shape evidence needs and influence study designs and analysis— ultimately enabling more accessible and regionally relevant dialogue and dissemination of learning.
In the past decade plus, ECSA-HC has contributed to implementation science efforts in the areas of respectful maternal care, urban health and nutrition, task sharing, child protection and mental health and psychosocial support. Their leadership includes convening stakeholder priority development workshops, serving on technical review panels, supporting landscape analyses, and contributing to the packaging and dissemination of findings through webinars, their Knowledge Hub, and events—including the Best Practices Forum, and Health Minister’s Conference.
Thanks to ECSA-HC’s Best Practices Forum (BPF) advancing issues of concern to the HMC, several resolutions directly related to ISC work have been passed, including ones on respectful maternal care in 2017, urban health in 2018, violence against children in 2023 and 2024, and mental health in 2024. Read a summary of the 2017-2023 resolutions all here.
