COHESION is the acronym of COmmunity HEalth System InnovatiON Project. It brings together institutions from Mozambique (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane), Nepal (B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences), Peru (Cronicas Centre of Excellence in Chronic Disease at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia) and Switzerland (University of Geneva, Geneva University Hospitals, Graduate Institute and the Università della Svizzera italiana) with a focus on improving the management of Noncommunicable (NCD) and Neglected Tropical diseases (NTD) at Primary Health Care (PHC) for vulnerable populations.
Rather than focus on the “what” of the project: NCDs, NTDs and PHC; or the “how”: mixed methods, co-creation, innovative, adapted interventions at the community level and active communication with a variety of stakeholders, the first blog post of the COHESION Project will be on the “who”.
So who is the COHESION Project? The core team is comprised of leading academics in the fields of public health, epidemiology, clinical medicine, economics, sociology, gender, social marketing, communication, and anthropology. With many years of experience in different settings and across disease areas, the COHESION Team brings together a unique group of people. The sum of these individuals is an exceptional team with a unique set of skills and experience.
How did this team come together? This team is brought together by long-standing working relationships, joint projects, membership of similar networks, but most importantly a shared vision of:
- Mutual learning
- A focus on the most vulnerable
- Health systems strengthening
- Robust design and evaluation of complex interventions
The proposal and its approach were developed by the whole team building on the needs of the most vulnerable populations in the three countries as well as on the skills and expertise of the country groups and their members. Together we agreed on the proposal and its approach and in doing so became a cohesive team and highly motivated to make the COHESION Project a success.
