Join PATH at the International Conference on Primary Health Care

Location: Skylight

Time: 13:30 – 14:30

Building Sustainable Primary Health Care

As the global landscape continues to evolve, we must build primary health care systems in a sustainable way. The Astana Declaration emphasizes the need for comprehensive, core public health functions delivered in a way that is integrated, not fragmented. Recent years have seen greater emphasis on capacity building, strengthening supply chains, and bolstering mechanisms to ensure quality and safety. Additionally, efforts have been made to better integrate primary health care with vertical programs, and we have seen the emergence of novel health technologies.

Digital technologies are essential resources in building a primary health care platform that is sustainable and that offers high quality, safe services. However, the advantages and disadvantages are often points of debate. During the conference, we hope to hear from a diverse array of experiences and perspectives on e-health, with the aim of better understanding how to efficiently and effectively utilize e-health to strengthen health systems.

Moderator: Dr. Kimberly Green, PATH

Panelists: Dr. Mengistu Asnake, Pathfinder; Dr. Suraya Dalil, WHO; Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu, Big Win Philanthropy; Dr. Maureen Kerubo Momanyi, UNICEF

Time: 11:15 – 12:15

Location: Ballroom 2
Multisectoral Approach to Strengthening Primary Health Care
This session explores practical ways to strengthen primary health care through multisectoral engagement and collaboration. It will focus on levers, including political commitment, governance, funding, and community engagement.
Presenter: Shirish Tiwari, PATH

Location: Ballroom 3
Leveraging New Tools to Strengthen the Design and Monitoring of Primary Health Care in Health Policies
Introducing the PHC Policy Tracker, a virtual dashboard tool developed by PATH, this session will showcase how the Tracker maps, analyzes, and visualizes data from national-level health policy documents in 26 low- and middle-income countries and will compare them with the WHO primary health care measurement framework and indicators.
Presenters: Katharine Shelley and Wanjiku Manguyu, PATH

Time: 14:45 – 15:45

Location: Skylight
Tech-Enabled PHC: Moving from Small Pilots to Digital Transformation
Discover how innovative technologies are being harnessed, including but not limited to public health communication programs, mobile-based applications, and digital checklists that support the provision of PHC services and address key challenges faced by clients and service providers in low- and middle-income countries.
Presenter: Beatrice Oyugi, PATH

Location: Exhibition hall

Time: 12:15 - 13:30

PATH's PHC Policy Tracker: An Interactive Demonstration

Policies for strong PHC systems are essential to advancing health equity, but they are complex and difficult to design. PATH created the PHC policy tracker as a consolidated source of information to equip policymakers and advocates with information about existing policies that shape PHC systems.

Visit the PATH booth for a demonstration of the PHC policy tracker. Come to this session with specific countries and policies in mind and learn how the tracker maps health policies in low- and middle-income countries, analyzes data about what those policies include, and facilitates cross-country advocacy and learning.

Presenter: Katharine Shelley

Location: Skylight

Time: 15:45 – 16:45

From Capital to Clinic: Advancing PHC Delivery and Financing from Policy to Action
Explore Kenya's innovative approach to primary health care (PHC) policy implementation and financing. Discover how they effectively disseminate policies and bridge implementation gaps using a hub and spoke model. Learn from their experiences in establishing primary care networks, investing in human resources, and reorganizing funding. This session contributes to global discourse on innovative primary health care policy implementation.
Presenter: Melissa Wanda, PATH

The NCD Navigator: A Tool to Improve Data Quality for a More Focused, Better-Resourced NCD Response in Kenya and Ghana
PATH created the NCD Navigator, a visual analytics system for noncommunicable diseases (NCD) ministry leads and partners to guide resource allocation, strategy development and implementation, and stakeholder coordination. Discover how the NCD Navigator is improving data quality for a more focused, better resourced NCD response in Kenya and Ghana.
Presenter: Dominic Mutai, PATH

NCD Prevention Education for Youth: A Model of Leveraging Digital Health in School
This session explores how to leverage digital technologies to build a dynamic PHC system with effective youth friendly primary prevention for noncommunicable diseases (NCD).
Presenter: Thuong Nguyen Hai, PATH

Enhancing Quality of Counseling by Community Health Volunteers During Household Visits: A Digital Symptoms Checklist Co-created Though Human Centered Design in Siaya, Western Kenya
Community health volunteers (CHVs) are essential in delivering critical messages and services as part of primary health care. PATH and the Siaya County Health Management Team conducted a human-centered design activity to understand the experiences of CHVs and co-create solutions to improve their quality of work.
Presenter: Beatrice Oyugi, PATH

Location: Skylight

Time: 15:45 – 16:45

Redesigning Referral Experience from Primary Health Care Level in India: A Behavioral Science and Human-Centered Design Approach
To achieve universal health coverage, the Government of India rolled out a comprehensive primary health care strategy in the country. In alignment with government priorities, PATH adopted a district saturation approach for demonstration of primary health care in India. To understand behavioral barriers faced by the demand and supply side, a behavior science and human-centered design approach was implemented across all elements of health systems for reimagining primary health care delivery.
Presenter: Ajay Patle, PATH

An NCD Medicine and Product Forecasting Tool Providing Evidence for Stronger Supply Chains
Gaps in the ability to forecast for the demand of medicines cause challenges for everyone from the government decision-makers to patients. In response to this need, the Coalition for Access to NCD Medicines & Products developed an NCD Forecasting Tool for Essential Medicines and Products and an accompanying toolkit, in partnership with the Ministries of Health in Kenya and Uganda. During this session, we will explain why they developed the NCD forecasting program, lessons learned from its pilot, and its impact, both in-country and globally.
Presenter: Dominic Mutai, PATH

Building Back Better: Supporting Delivery of Early Childhood Development and Maternal Mental Health Services as Part of Rebuilding Primary Health Care After Conflict in Northern Amhara, Ethiopia
Primary health care (PHC) has been affected by conflict in northern Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Conflict also affects early childhood development (ECD) and maternal mental health (MMH). As part of primary health care rebuilding, facility-level providers were trained at 18 health centers and 81 health posts in six woredas (districts). A multifaceted approach to integrate ECD and MMH into post-conflict PHC rebuilding is feasible and can improve key mental health and development outcomes.
Presenter: Nesibu Agonafir, PATH

Human-Centered Design (HCD) Study to Understand Behavioral Levers for the Use of COVID-19 Self-Testing
This session explores the evolution of COVID-19 testing methodologies for enhancing the uptake of COVID-19 self-testing. We will share insights from a human-centered design approach that delved into barriers and enablers of self-testing adoption and uncovered factors shaping accessibility, user experience, and interventions for better uptake.
Presenter: Mayank Sharma, PATH

Location: Skylight

Time: 10:00 – 11:00

Leveraging Social Accountability and Community Engagement for #PHC4UHC
Civic engagement is a critical propeller for government actions and policies, especially as they progress toward strengthening national primary health care platforms and advancing universal health coverage goals. Key to making progress is the implementation of a multidisciplinary approach that includes alliance and coalition building, monitoring tools, advocacy based on evidence, and capacity building of diverse stakeholders.

To reach UHC2030 targets, actors from all levels and sectors must align on goals and strategies for action. This session explores how communities and civil society organizations can push decision-makers to invest in strengthened health systems that work for people and communities and advance health equity, shares learnings and successes from civil society organizations working with communities to get closer to health for all, and identifies one thing all session attendees can do to engage communities in holding governments accountable on the path for UHC.
Co-moderator: Rosemarie Muganda, PATH
Presenter: Melissa Wanda, PATH

Setting CHWs Up for Success by Equipping CHWs with Digital Tools
Community health workers (CHWs) play a pivotal role in bringing essential prevention, management, and treatment services and products closer to individuals and communities. They are more likely to succeed when they have clear roles and tasks. However, the implementation and scale-up of CHW programs usually relies on external funding, often leaving their roles, training, placement, and payments left out of the formal health system and workforce. About 50 percent of CHWs are not salaried, and there is a significant burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic, exhaustion, illness, trauma, and loss. And as a result, approximately 1 billion people worldwide are without access to a health worker.

To optimize CHW capacity now, now is the time to equip them with digital tools that enable formal trainings and mentoring, supportive supervision, an organized manner of carrying out tasks, data reporting, quality of care monitoring, telehealth, contact tracing, and mobile payments for their time and services. This session explores how national health systems can support CHWs with digital innovations, and shares learnings from exemplar digital innovations for CHWs that were met with challenges and how those challenges were addressed. The session will identify one thing everyone can do to advocate for stronger digital innovations for the CHWs.
Moderator: Dr. Kimberly Green, PATH
Presenter: Deusdedit Mjungu, PATH

Location: Skylight

Time: 11:15 – 12:00

Effective planning and budgeting for PHC: Lessons learned from Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Malawi, Kenya, and Zambia
Healthcare financing plays a vital role in achieving universal health coverage, thereby enhancing access to healthcare services. We invite you to join us for an informative session.
Presenter: Rosemarie Muganda, PATH

Location: Skylight

Time: 11:15 – 12:00

Engagement of Community Health Workers for Improved PHC Services: TIMCI Implementation Experience in Tanzania
Lack of community awareness on disease danger signs is one of the biggest challenges to effective delivery of PHC services. PATH—in partnership with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Ifakara Health Institute, and government of Tanzania—directly engaged community health workers to lead community sensitization strategies toward enhanced caregiver understanding of signs of severe illness and improvement in their engagement with health care services. We will use this opportunity to share our learnings from that work.
Presenter: Deusdedit Mjungu, PATH

Location: Skylight

Time: 11:15 – 12:00

HCD for PHC: Lessons from India in Designing for More Responsive and People-Centered PHC
Human-centered design methods were applied to understand the supply and demand challenges of building a model Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC) in Maharashtra. This session will share what we learned about the behavioral barriers and enablers in implementation of AB-HWC guidelines through stakeholder interviews with policymakers, providers, and end users.
Presenter: Mayank Sharma, PATH