Abstract
Background Global health partnerships have expanded exponentially in the last two decades with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance considered the model’s pioneer and leader because of its vaccination programs’ implementation mechanism. Gavi, relies on diverse domestic and international partners to carry out its programs in low- and middle-income countries under a Partnership Engagement Framework (PEF). We harnessed an established partnership evaluation framework, to conduct an in-depth examination of Mozambique’s Gavi driven partnership network which delivered the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine during the demonstration phase.Methods We utilized mixed methods to assess five partnership dimensions. Qualitative tools gauged contextual factors, prerequisites, partner performance and practices while a social network analysis (SNA) survey measured the partnership structure and perceived added value in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and country ownership. The 40 key informants who were interviewed included frontline ministry of health workers, ministry of education staff and supporting partner organization members, of whom 34 participated in the social network analysis survey.Results SNA measures for partnership structure revealed a partnership network characterized by high overall connectivity. Reachability 100% and average distance 2.5 scores were high, features that are favorable for rapid and widespread diffusion of information that is needed for engaging and handling multiple implementation scales. High SNA effectiveness and efficiency measures for structural holes (85%) and low redundancy (30%) coupled with high mean perceived effectiveness (97.6%) and efficiency (79.5%) outcome scores were observed. Additionally, the tie strength average score of 4.1 on a scale of 5 denoted high professional trust. These are all markers of a partnership where disparate institutions and organizations worked in a collaborative environment in which each entity’s comparative advantage was leveraged. Lower perceived outcome scores for country ownership (24%) were found with the challenges of working with out-of-country partners being prominently cited by study participants as reasons.Conclusions While there is room for improvement on the country ownership aspects of the partnership, the expanded, diverse and inclusive collaboration of institutions and organizations that implemented the Mozambique HPV vaccine demonstration project was effective and efficient and we recommend that the country adapt a similar model during the national scale up.
The NHLBI—UnitedHealth Global Health Centers of Excellence Program:
Assessment of Impact of Federal Funding Through a Social Network
Analysis
