Support Team - SPHIP annual meeting in Vientiane , Lao PDR

On 16^th October 2019, one day ahead of the International Public Health Conference for the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the SPHIP programme convened its annual meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR. This is the fifth year of the SPHIP programme, and many projects are in a phase of producing results of research projects, training programmes, and policy recommendations. 

The eight projects in low- and middle-income countries, supported by regional and European partners have worked on strengthening institutions, performing research, providing training, and developing policy advice for governments.

See box for a summary of the achievements in the projects.

During the SPHIP meeting the projects presented their progress in implementation.

In general, there is good progress in most projects. However, two projects need more time to complete the work, e.g. because of government-related issues. Two projects need more time to complete last research activities and disseminate results. Two projects may need some more time to complete part of the work programme, e.g. training or institutional development. It is likely that six out of the eight projects will need between 3- and 6-months extra time, beyond the official project period. The project managers are now discussing with the EU delegations which are the options for extension.

The SPHIP meeting also discussed the evaluation of the overall programme after completion of the projects. The evaluation will focus on strengthening of the public health institutes or universities in the countries (the beneficiary institutions). It is very important that for sustainable results the institutions will be stronger as results of the support they have received. The strengthening of the institutes can be studied at three levels: individual, organisational and institutional. How have individuals gained in knowledge and skills from the projects, e.g. through specific training programmes, participation in conferences? How was the organisation strengthened, e.g. by developing management procedures, income-generating projects, libraries, etc.? How were the institutions strengthened in developing strategies, knowledge translation activities, websites, etc. that will position them better in the national and international health sector? Early next year the SPHIP support team and the projects will conduct such research to measure results of the programme.