Integrating Human-Centered Design to Advance Global Health: Lessons From 3 Programs
Human-centered design (HCD) is increasingly being used as a complementary approach to traditional global health methods due to its ability to bring new ideas to entrenched problems, integrate multiple stakeholder perspectives, and bring in a strong human lens among other advantages. This article distills lessons gathered from 3 programs leveraging HCD to advance global health programming: (1) the “V” program which used an HCD approach to reframe the once-a-day HIV prevention pill from a potentially stigmatizing medicine into empowering self-care; (2) the Adolescents 360 program which integrated HCD to create a service for adolescent girls to access contraception in Ethiopia and to scale this offering nationwide; and (3) Reimagining TA which used HCD to help shift perceptions around traditional technical assistance models to one of co-creation, defining a new approach for nonfinancial support for health systems strengthening. To inform global health programs that are considering employing an HCD approach, lessons learned are distilled into 3 categories: (1) planning: considerations for problem definition and project scoping to allow for flexibility and selection of appropriate methods; (2) engaging: reflections on the means to productively engage different stakeholder groups to build alignment, understanding, and buy-in; (3) applying: adoption of new ways of working during implementation to best take advantage of the benefits of HCD while promoting long-term program sustainability and learning. These lessons represent an important step on the pathway to demonstrate the contributions of HCD to improving the effectiveness of health programs at a time when the global health community needs the most robust set of tools possible to meet the demands of our current pandemic context and beyond.
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Human-centered design (HCD) is increasingly being used as a complementary approach to traditional global health methods due to its ability to bring new ideas to entrenched problems, integrate multiple stakeholder perspectives, and bring in a strong human lens among other advantages. This article distills lessons gathered from 3 programs leveraging HCD to advance global health programming: (1) the “V” program which used an HCD approach to reframe the once-a-day HIV prevention pill from a potentially stigmatizing medicine into empowering self-care; (2) the Adolescents 360 program which integrated HCD to create a service for adolescent girls to access contraception in Ethiopia and to scale this offering nationwide; and (3) Reimagining TA which used HCD to help shift perceptions around traditional technical assistance models to one of co-creation, defining a new approach for nonfinancial support for health systems strengthening. To inform global health programs that are considering employing an HCD approach, lessons learned are distilled into 3 categories: (1) planning: considerations for problem definition and project scoping to allow for flexibility and selection of appropriate methods; (2) engaging: reflections on the means to productively engage different stakeholder groups to build alignment, understanding, and buy-in; (3) applying: adoption of new ways of working during implementation to best take advantage of the benefits of HCD while promoting long-term program sustainability and learning. These lessons represent an important step on the pathway to demonstrate the contributions of HCD to improving the effectiveness of health programs at a time when the global health community needs the most robust set of tools possible to meet the demands of our current pandemic context and beyond.
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A360 Process Evaluation Methodology: Updated July 2019
Add To FavouritesA360 Process Evaluation Methodology: Updated July 2019
The Process Methodology document presents a descriptive and analytical account of how the implementation of A360 has played out, with the aim of improving understanding of how and why A360 is making a difference, in order to generate lessons for future policy and practice. Clear questions guiding this Process Evaluation were established at end of the pilot phase with deliberate emphasis to better understand and document A360’s implementation approach. Questions articulated in this paper focus on process, context and solutions, with a detailed explanation on select methods used in the evaluation.
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A360’s Learning and Growth since the 2018 Mid-Term Evaluation
Add To FavouritesA360’s Learning and Growth since the 2018 Mid-Term Evaluation
This report presents A360’s reflections from its programs on adolescent contraceptive service delivery in three countries; Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria. These learnings are generated through cross learning across the different contexts, and are focused on the adaptive management of A360’s programs during the first two and a half years of implementation. Furthermore, the report also offers considerations to be taken into account for future implementation of A360’s programs. This is a useful resource for ASRH practitioners who would like to learn more about adaptive management of programs post implementation.
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A360 Evaluation Findings Synthesis: No 1. How might we better meet the needs of adolescent couples with contraceptive counseling and services through Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program?
Add To FavouritesA360 Evaluation Findings Synthesis: No 1. How might we better meet the needs of adolescent couples with contraceptive counseling and services through Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program?
This publication is a summary of the process evaluation done by ITAD, for A360’s Smart Start project in Ethiopia. It highlights the methodology used for this process evaluation, and the key insights that were arrived at through action research with the users and a sounding workshop with the A360 team. The publication also provides direction and recommendations that are informed by the insights generated through the process evaluation of the Smart Start project. This is a great resource for implementers and evaluators who are seeking a methodology and some inspiration to evaluate their programs.
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Supporting Scalable, Youth-Powered Programming at the Community Level in Ethiopia: The Case of Smart Start
Add To FavouritesSupporting Scalable, Youth-Powered Programming at the Community Level in Ethiopia: The Case of Smart Start
A360’s Smart Start is an intervention that uses financial planning as an entry point to engage young married couples in planning their futures and reaching financial stability, positioning contraception as a tool to achieve their self-defined goals. Smart Start supports girls aged 15-19 and their partners to understand the resources they’ll need for the families they desire. This technical brief analyzes A360’s strategy and lessons learned to date, presenting a case study of the A360 experience in Ethiopia, and offering considerations for similar AYSRH implementation in future settings.
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A360 Emerging Insights for Design
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This deck summarises insights gathered by the A360 team for designing the Smart Start program in Ethiopia. It shares what the design team learned about young girls’ motivations behind SRH-related behaviour and decisions. The deck starts with giving information about the methodology behind insight generation, and then goes into findings about young girls’ behaviour, cultural norms, and traditional contraception messaging. Finally, creators of the deck share themes that they thought were relevant for consideration, and offer recommendations on how the intervention can be designed. This is a good tool to understand how insight generation happens in an HCD process, but may not necessarily be helpful to someone who is unaware of HCD.
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Integrating Human-Centered Design in a Multidisciplinary Effort to Address Provider Bias: a Summary of the Beyond Bias Experience (Part 3)
Add To FavouritesIntegrating Human-Centered Design in a Multidisciplinary Effort to Address Provider Bias: a Summary of the Beyond Bias Experience (Part 3)
This executive summary unpacks the use of HCD in ‘Beyond Bias’, an adolescent focused project that addresses provider bias. Along with providing an overview of the HCD methodology used, and the solutions generated by the project, this publication also reflects on the use of HCD in an ASRH project. It highlights the value additions of using human centered design, the key challenges that were faced, and important recommendations informed by project learnings. This is a good resource for designers and ASRH implementers to understand the application, benefits and limitations of the HCD process in the context of ASRH.
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Tackling Provider Bias in Contraceptive Service Delivery- Lessons from the Beyond Bias project
Add To FavouritesTackling Provider Bias in Contraceptive Service Delivery- Lessons from the Beyond Bias project
The presentation provides an overview of the Beyond Bias project approach, describes the behavior change strategy developed
and are being implemented, and shares some reflections and insights gleaned along the way for tackling bias. -
Men Stand Up
Add To FavouritesMen Stand Up
This report presents perceptions of young men (aged 18 to 24 years) on issues related to family planning in India, Kenya, Mali & Nigeria. Insights presented in this document highlight young men’s experiences, needs and vulnerabilities related to sexual and reproductive health in the four countries. It showcases how participatory design and quantitative approaches have been used to encourage young men to tell their stories and offer personal perspectives on what they care most about. Program implementers, design researchers and other ASRH practitioners would find this document useful, particularly to better understand contextual differences and similarities across select geographies.