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How Our Work Benefits

USAID Missions

Using knowledge to strengthen systems and local capacity

Knowledge is the foundation of high-performing health systems, successful policies, and achievement of national and regional health goals. Knowledge SUCCESS is a global knowledge management (KM) project that can provide technical assistance to any USAID Mission through a buy-in.

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Our project has successfully incorporated KM approaches at the systems, organizational, and individual levels in East Africa, West Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean (under a previous award, K4Health). Working collaboratively with local partners, we are experts at:

  • Bringing together individuals, organizations, and countries so they can share experiences of what works, and what doesn’t, and learn from each other,
  • Developing innovative and localized tools that improve the exchange and flow of information, and
  • Publishing practical evidence and insights in ways that are actionable and easy to understand.

We define knowledge as many things: data, evidence, technical guidance, and practical lived experiences. When people working in health and development can share what they know, and find the information they need, programs are better able to reach their full potential and avoid repeating costly mistakes.

What We Can Do For USAID Missions

USAID has defined many agency-wide priorities to guide investments, among them its Health Systems Strengthening 2030 vision and Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS) policy. Health Systems Strengthening 2030 focuses on three outcome goals for a high-performing health system: equity, quality, and resource optimization. The LCS policy guides USAID decisions about why and how to invest in the capacity of local partners and is aligned along two pillars: equitable partnerships and effective programming.

Here’s how KM can support USAID goals to strengthen health systems and local capacity.

Equity

The practice of knowledge management brings everyone the same fair opportunity to access and use data, information, and knowledge.

KM helps ensure that people are empowered to create or share information and no longer face barriers to accessing the knowledge they need to serve the health of their communities.

Many health professionals, through trainings led by Knowledge SUCCESS, are learning how to present technical health information in ways that are easy for their peers or others to understand and apply to their context, and some individuals are now training others on how to do this.

Quality

Continuous learning and sharing—and the application of that knowledge to services—leads to health systems that are responsive to patient and population needs.

Public health programs often have ambitious goals but possess limited time, money, and human resources to execute the work. KM can help stakeholders rapidly learn what works and what does not and quickly adapt their work.

Experiences with failure give us insights into how we can improve programs and services, but they aren’t often shared. Talking about what didn’t go well can help us make course corrections and plan more effectively. Knowledge SUCCESS has significant experience leading workshops on failures and behavioral research into the sharing of failures.

Resource Mobilization

Resources are optimized when countries and partners can practice evidence-based decision-making, learning, and adaptation.

KM can address gaps in the information pathway between provider knowledge, provider behavior, service quality, service uptake, and health outcomes.

Intentional knowledge sharing and learning methods can increase cross country collaboration, help programs more efficiently reach target audiences, and leverage investments more effectively. Our Learning Circles model is one way we guide programs and individuals to share critical knowledge.

Equitable Partnerships

Knowledge management recognizes local stakeholders as the experts and emphasizes the value of their expertise and relationships.

Knowledge SUCCESS designs KM approaches with and for the people who will use them, resulting in more frequent and sustained knowledge sharing in high-priority health areas.

Our project has trained hundreds of KM champions in USAID countries of implementation, who are now building locally-relevant knowledge systems and networks that can meaningfully improve health programs.

Effective Programming

Health program capacity is strengthened by lasting practices of learning and sharing that are authentic to where people are located.

Knowledge SUCCESS has a proven track record of working with stakeholders to incorporate sustainable learning practices into national and regional frameworks and policies, so that knowledge is applied within the local system and the local system has the means to continuously learn and improve.

Our project connects stakeholders to share experiences with each other, so that they can find practical solutions that match their context from peers who have lived their context.

How to Engage Knowledge SUCCESS

Supported by a 5-year cooperative agreement (February 2019 – August 2024), Knowledge SUCCESS can provide technical assistance to all USAID Missions and can accept funds from all USAID/USG accounts.

To learn how Knowledge SUCCESS can help you achieve your goals, please reach out directly to our USAID AOR, Kate Howell, or use our contact form. You may download the information shared on this page in PDF form in English or French.