A multi-country meeting of the COHESION-I research project was held in Hyderabad, India. Our partner institution, The George Institute for Global Health in India, hosted the meeting and provided us with a broad overview of the country’s health system.
From March 25th to 29th, 2024, team members of the COHESION-I Project from India, Mozambique, Nepal, and Peru and one of our external advisors, former Principal Investigator of the COHESION Project (2016-2020, read more here), convened to discuss progress made so far. During the meeting, participants learned more about the Indian context and made strategic decisions related to the research project components, that is, the co-design, implementation and evaluation of interventions in Mozambique, Nepal and Peru (component 1), and the optimization process in India (component 2).
In this first in-person team meeting, The George Institute for Global Health in India (TGI) organized a small in-office Holi Festival to foster trust and interpersonal communication among team members and share with colleagues some of the cultural traditions of India and Nepal. This festival that symbolizes the beginning of spring also served to initiate the week-long activities. These included country-specific presentations on progress made in each of the project components, smaller group discussions on the intervention evaluations and country-specific theory of change, a site visit to different levels of the health system, and other exchanges related to capacity strengthening, communication and general project coordinations.
In the opening session, after team-members introduced themselves, country-specific presentations of the activities and milestones attained so far were done. The presentations covered various topics including the progress of the research work, the characteristics and reasons for selecting the sites where the project activities would be implemented, ethical committee approval processes, the co-design process in Mozambique, Nepal and Peru (Component 1), and the formative studies and co-creation activities being conducted in India as part of the second component of the project. During these conversations, participants also reflected on challenges and achievements, lessons learned and improvement strategies that could guide subsequent activities. One of the aims of this first multi-country meeting was to learn more about the Indian health system. This included presentations and discussions led by team members from India who described and explained their health system. This introduction served to contextualize a site visit to the Siddipet district. During this site visit, team members visited the Anganwadi Center, a child development and nutrition center, a sub-center, and a Primary Health Center (government healthcare facility). During the visit to each of these locations, team members gained a deeper understanding of how the healthcare system works and the daily challenges faced. After the field visit, a discussion session was held to share insights and ideas. Some of the ideas discussed by the team were the availability of medicines and diagnostic tools for NCDs at PHC level, and the integration of traditional medicine in the formal health system through the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homeopathy), which are not so common in the contexts of the other partner countries.
Another aim of the in-person meeting was to discuss specific project activities and needs, country-specific adaptations and next steps, which was carried out through small groups meetings. Participants were distributed in these smaller groups according to their roles in the project. The groups focused on the quantitative, qualitative, economic and process evaluations to be held in Mozambique, Nepal and Peru. Discussions revolved around methods, data collection and analyzes processes and needs, timelines, potential challenges, and contingency plans. Other smaller group discussions were carried out per country to brainstorm and share their specific needs in terms of capacity strengthening and communication, after their respective plans were presented. A discussion on potential publications marked the end of this first in-person multi-country meeting of the COHESION-I Project.
We thank The George Institute for Global Health India for their warm welcome and support, as well as the different stakeholders from the Siddipet district who shared with us their valuable time and experiences working in the health system.
This blog was written in collaboration among Gabriela Sandoval (Peru team), Anibal Chauque (Mozambique team), Dinesh Raj (India team) and Nathaly Aya Pastrana (Peru team).