National Coordination of Multi-sectoral, Multi-level Pandemic Responses Virtual Collaborative

The Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (Accelerator), implemented by Results for Development, in partnership with the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage, established a network of in‐country leaders to support a cross‐country learning collaborative on multi‐sectoral and multi‐level coordination of pandemic responses such as the current COVID‐19 crisis and building toward more resilient and responsive systems in the future.   

Objectives

The current COVID‐19 pandemic is devastating for health systems, economies, human and socioeconomic conditions globally. To slow the spread of the virus and to reduce its toll on population health and socioeconomic development, country leaders must manage strong systems‐focused, multi‐sectoral coordination, planning, and monitoring. Countries are asking how to build and manage the cross‐sectoral teams needed to mount a coordinated response to the pandemic.

Multisectoral teams from eight countries — Bahrain, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Senegal formed a learning collaborative focused on multi‐sectoral, multi‐level coordination of pandemic responses allows for cross‐country exchange on what has worked and not worked and the generation of practical guidance that can benefit others as a global public good.

Our Work

Collaborative participants convened for the first virtual meeting in December 2020 to co‐develop a learning agenda and begin exchanging on two topics they prioritized: (1) Citizen fatigue and non‐compliance and (2) Information availability and the integration of data systems. The second meeting of the collaborative, held in February 2021, provided an opportunity to exchange and capture country experiences on engaging communities and households in the response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Participants also identified promising approaches and key areas for future peer support and problem‐solving on the theme of community engagement. In this first phase, the collaborative will support each country team to conduct a self‐assessment exercise to identify concrete opportunities to improve their coordination efforts.