Resources

Preventing vaccine freezing is one of the biggest barriers in vaccine management. Toward addressing this challenge, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan, Nepal, in collaboration with PATH, conducted a field evaluation of freeze-preventive vaccine carriers (FPVCs) in 24 health facilities located across one hilly district and one plains district of eastern Nepal. The primary study objectives were to evaluate the performance, acceptability, and fit of the FPVCs within the existing immunization system.

Fortifying staple foods with micronutrients is one of the most cost-effective, scalable, and evidence-based interventions to help combat widespread micronutrient deficiencies. As Myanmar’s staple food is rice, which lacks many necessary vitamins and minerals found in a balanced diet, rice fortification is a culturally appropriate solution and an effective way to improve nutrition in the country. This FAQ document provides answers to the most common questions about fortified rice in Myanmar in order to combat malnutrition in the country.

Robust policy is critical to achieving improved health outcomes—but far too often action stops once a policy is developed and adopted. Policies are only as effective as the extent to which they are implemented, and poor policy implementation holds back efforts to expand equitable access to health services.Advocates play a key role in driving policy implementation and holding decision-makers accountable. A number of existing frameworks and tools serve to inform their strategies and approaches; PATH's Capital to Clinic initiative aims to establish a tool and methodology—building upon defined strategic frameworks—for advocates to move the policy process forward toward implementation and evaluation.This brief provides an overview of existing frameworks for pursuing policy implementation.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is an urgent need to maintain the delivery and quality of essential health services. Many national and subnational governments have been actively developing policies, strategies, and guidelines related to the maintenance, adaptation, or discontinuation of health services. PATH, at the request of WHO and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is rapidly collecting national and subnational policy materials related to the provision of essential health services during COVID-19, with the objectives of describing government responses across health services and over time; comparing government responses to WHO’s operational guidance on maintaining essential health services, and to responses of peer countries; and identifying gaps in responses to help target technical assistance, monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning.This document reports interim findings of this project as of October 2020. The first version of the Policy Tracker database is publicly available here.

The Digital Implementation Investment Guide (DIIG) aims to help governments and technical partners plan a digital health implementation that focuses on one or more health programs to support national health system goals. The Guide is designed to walk users of the document step-by-step through planning, costing and implementing digital health interventions within a digital health enterprise. This consists of selecting digital health interventions that are aligned with identified health needs, appropriate to a specific country context and integrated with existing technologies and the broader digital architecture. Users of the Guide will learn from diverse experiences deploying digital health technologies over the past decade and will be guided through a systematic approach to designing, costing and implementing meaningful digital health interventions that are part of a digital health enterprise.The DIIG was developed by PATH, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, and the United Nations Population Fund, among other partners.