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What do you do with success? The science of scaling up a health systems strengthening intervention in Ghana Article  in  BMC Health Services Research · December 2018 DOI: 10.1186/s12913-018-3250-3

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What Do You Do With Success? The Science of Scaling Up a Health Systems Strengthening Intervention in Ghana James F. Phillips1* John Koku Awoonor-Williams2 Ayaga A. Bawah3 Belinda Afriyie Nimako4 Nicholas Kanlisi5 Mallory C. Sheff6 Elizabeth F. Jackson7 Patrick O. Asuming8 Pearl Kyei9 Adriana Biney10 Keywords: Ghana; health system strengthening; scaling up; health policy; implementation research; embedded science; community-based primary health care; research utilization; plausibility trial; child survival

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Abstract:

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Background. The completion of an implementation research project typically signals the end of research. In contrast, Ghana has embraced a continuous process of evidence-based programming, wherein each research episode is followed by action and a new program of research to monitor and guide the utilization of lessons learned. This paper reviews the objectives and design of the most recent phase in this process, known as a National Program for Strengthening the Implementation of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative in Ghana (CHPS+).

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Description of the intervention. A process of exchanges, team interaction, and catalytic financing accelerated the expansion of community-based primary health care in Ghana’s Upper East Region. Using two Northern and two Volta Region districts the Upper East Region’s systems learning concept will be transferred to counterpart districts where a program of team-based peer training will be instituted.

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Methods. A mixed method evaluation strategy has been launched involving: i) baseline and endline randomized sample survey with 247 clusters dispersed in 14 districts of the Northern and Volta Regions to assess the difference in difference effect of stepped wedge differential cluster exposure to CHPS+ activities on childhood survival, ii) a monitoring system to assess the association of changes in service system 1

Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Avenue B-2, New York, NY 10032 ([email protected]) * Corresponding author. 2 Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service, Private Mailbag, Accra, Ghana ([email protected]) 3 Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana ([email protected]) 4 Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service, Private Mailbag, Accra, Ghana ([email protected]) 5 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Avenue B-2, New York, NY 10032 ([email protected]) 6 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Avenue, New York, NY 10032 USA ([email protected]) 7 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Avenue, New York, NY 10032 USA ([email protected]) 8 University of Ghana School of Business, Legon, Ghana ([email protected]) 9 Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Legon Ghana ([email protected]) 10 Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Legon Ghana ([email protected]) 1

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readiness with CHPS+ interventions, and iii) a program of qualitative systems appraisal to gauge stakeholder perceptions of systems problems, reactions to interventions, and perceptions of change. Integrated survey and monitoring data will permit multi-level longitudinal models of impact; longitudinal QSA data will provide data on the implementation process.

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Discussion. CHPS+ combine mixed method research with national and regional program management to generate a system of embedded science for ensuring that results will foster a utilization process rather than a set of reform policies that must await an end-of-CHPS+ report.

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Registration:

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The National Program for Strengthening the Implementation of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative in Ghana (CHPS+) is a forthcoming plausibility trial whereby observational units are districts of the Government of Ghana health system. The study is nevertheless in the process of undergoing registration.

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BACKGROUND

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Scientists completing work on successful experimental health systems studies often recommend

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scaling-up results, ending research by handing over lessons learned to policy makers and managers (Chopra

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et al. 2009). This paper presents a contrasting paradigm: researchers, policy makers and managers who have

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completed a successful experiment will now begin a program of action and research to develop and test

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strategies for scaling it up. This new program represents a new phase in a process of two decades of

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implementation science for producing outcomes and actions to guide the development of community-based

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primary health care in Ghana (Awoonor-Williams et al. 2017) .

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Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS). Representing Ghana’s flagship approach

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to achieving Universal Health Coverage, Ghana’s Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS)

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was launched in 2000 to scale-up community-based primary health care strategies. These were proven by

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an experimental study of the Navrongo Community Health and Family Planning Project to be a promising

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mechanism for saving lives (Binka et al. 2007; Nyonator et al. 2005). A series of replication projects in

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response to Navrongo research showed that its strategies represent an approach to basic curative and

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preventive integrated care that improves health and reduces maternal and childhood mortality (Awoonor-

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Williams et al. 2004; Awoonor-Williams et al. 2005; Awoonor-Williams et al. 2015).

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While CHPS has remained a signature achievement of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ghana

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has struggled to bring primary health services to all who need them, largely because leadership and support

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systems development at the regional, district, and sub-district levels have been neglected or isolated from

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academic and national support systems. Evidence reported by national monitoring systems in 2008 showed

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that the pace of CHPS scale-up was progressing so slowly that targeted coverage would require nearly five

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decades of effort if current rates of scale-up continued without reform (Nyonator, Awoonor-Williams, and

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Phillips 2011). Moreover, evidence from field research showed that implementation had drifted from the

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original proven package of implementation strategies (Binka et al. 2009): CHPS was failing to achieve its 2

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full potential. National strategies for scaling up CHPS focused on policy pronouncements, workshops, and

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leadership training, each pursued as isolated activities that lacked systems perspectives. Policies were

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grounded in evidence, but strategies for sharing evidence were unlinked to practical demonstration of

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implementation in the field. University programs, which could bridge leadership gaps by training health

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specialists, were training specialists in health science rather than managers with systems development skills

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that lead to leadership roles. This resulted in a fundamental disconnect between capacity building, policy

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making, and evidence-generating field stations.

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The Ghana Essential Health Intervention Programme (GEHIP). In response, the Upper East

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Regional Health Administration (UERHA) of the Ghana Health Service, in collaboration with the Navrongo

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Health Research Centre (NHRC) and with technical support from Columbia University’s Mailman School

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of Public Health, launched in 2010 the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Programme (GEHIP) to

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develop, implement, and evaluate a program of CHPS implementation reform, restructuring, and

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organizational change (Awoonor-Williams, Bawah, et al. 2013). Located in four of Ghana’s most

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impoverished and remote rural districts, GEHIP implemented a series of health system strengthening

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initiatives directed at improving leadership and governance systems at all levels of the health system within

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the district; improving data schemes for informed decision making; designing and implementing emergency

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referral systems that catalyzed the transport of pregnant women and children to higher levels of the

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healthcare system where services are more available; and providing catalytic funding that allowed district

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managers to easily respond to healthcare needs that otherwise would not be addressed with vertical disease-

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specific allocations.

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After five years of GEHIP implementation, results demonstrated feasible and effective means of

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accelerating the expansion of CHPS coverage in the intervention districts compared to comparison districts.

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This expansion resulted in a 49 percent reduction in under-five mortality in treatment areas relative to levels

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in comparison districts (Binka et al. 2007). GEHIP reduced the time to achieving CHPS-implemented

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Universal Health Coverage from a national pace that would have required 49 years to a project pace of

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expansion that achieved this goal in only 5 years (Figure 1). Not only was CHPS expanded, but service

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quality was also enhanced with frontline worker retraining and the addition of emergency public health

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capabilities (Awoonor-Williams et al. 2015).

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Transformative interventions that enabled these achievements to be attained in five years included

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strengthening CHPS by expanding the role of the community health nurse and volunteer in maternal,

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newborn and child health, and improving the skills of the nurses (including midwives) and volunteers in

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life saving interventions such as applying neonatal resuscitation, kangaroo mother care, and care for febrile

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illnesses. Other interventions included the provision of family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH)

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services, training of nurses in Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM), improving the leadership 3

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capabilities of nurses and their supervisors through training, and improving logistics supplies and

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management.

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Each participating district was provided with a modest commitment of supplemental funding over

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a three year period, providing a basis for exchanges, budgeting, and community engagement to be

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appropriately focused on CHPS start-up activities. Classroom sessions were minimized; instead, systems

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strengthening activities were launched in conjunction with community engaged frontline worker training

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in interventions and peer exchanges to demonstrate teamwork and practical task planning. Emergency

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referral capacity was instituted with an approach that links worker training to community mobilization and

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information support; perinatal interventions; and volunteer recruitment, training, and support. The outcome

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was an approach to integrated services that expanded the coverage and quality of IMCI services and

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responsiveness to emergency care needs. By linking grassroots politicians to community efforts, the

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popularity of health development was demonstrated in ways that built political commitment to leveraged

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financing of health sector investment in CHPS. Community volunteerism, catalytic resources, politically

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inspired development investment, and sustained diplomatic support from district health officials worked as

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a system of interaction that transformed CHPS implementation.

Figure 1:

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THE CHPS+ PROGRAM

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In keeping with Ghana’s legacy of evidence-base health system programming, the successes of

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GEHIP are being transitioned to a replication trial phase that will develop, test, and disseminate a strategy

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for reforming CHPS based on GEHIP successes. Its continuous functioning will provide a learning platform

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for informing national efforts to scale-up GEHIP strategies. The Program for Strengthening the

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Implementation of the Community-based Health Planning and Services Initiative in Ghana (CHPS+) is a

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five year project that aims to strengthen the capacity of District Health Management Teams (DHMT) to

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oversee improvements in the quality of primary health care, focusing in particular on family planning and

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maternal, newborn and child health care delivery. CHPS+ is comprised of a program of applied learning,

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team problem solving, peer mentoring, incentivizing financing for improving basic equipment

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requirements, and technical training that strengthens Ghana’s health system at all levels. It is designed with

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the intention of decentralizing reform of CHPS implementation activities, with GEHIP lessons learned

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providing a guide to strategic planning and action. As such, CHPS+ represents a program of research on

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the utilization of GEHIP research -- the science of which differs from the science of implementing and

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evaluating a ‘proof of concept’ trial.

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This application of implementation research is not new. Organizational change research is a well-

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developed scientific field in business and public administration with decades of grounding in theory,

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methods, and application (Katz & Kahn 1978; Dalton & Lawrence 1970; Lawrence & Lorsch 1969).

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However, scientific investigation of scaling up is only rarely applied to health systems research projects in

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Africa (Phillips, Sheff, & Boyer, 2015).

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The CHPS+ theory of change. CHPS+ is grounded in experience with planned organizational

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change in Ghana. Taken as a set of activities, Figure 2 portrays a model for catalyzing implementation-

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based learning and “guided diffusion” for spreading commitment to community-engaged CHPS

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implementation and functioning (Awoonor-Williams, Sory, Nyonator, et al., 2013a; Fajans, Simmons, &

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Ghiron, 2006; Greenhalgh, Robert, Macfarlane, Bate, & Kyriakidou, 2004; Nyonator, Awoonor-Williams,

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Phillips, Jones, & Miller, 2005a). The district management system is the focus of intervention, with district

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team stakeholders constituting players in the process of instituting large scale change. To implement the

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CHPS+ program, key elements of the GEHIP approach will be transferred to regional, district, sub-district,

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and community-level teams through exchanges that are field based and designed to demonstrate core

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GEHIP action agenda. Since all district implementers cannot possibly be included in a program of

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exchange, a program of interchange and outreach is envisioned that will focus on catalytic leadership

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implementation units that represent the authority and implementation hierarchy in participating districts

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(DeSavigny & Adam 2009). Once GEHIP-like implementation is installed in one or two localities of

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participating districts, the approach will have bridged the implementation knowledge gap: Training will not 5

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just convey knowledge and ideas, but will create implementation capacity through demonstration at districts

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of excellence where operations are fully functioning. Termed Systems Learning Districts (SLD) these

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localities will provide the core capability of the CHPS+ learning system. At each SLD, there will be a

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program that generates implementation experience with the effective development and functioning of

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CHPS at the community level (left hand panel, Figure 2). Then, with functional CHPS implementation as

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a learning platform, project resources will be directed to sponsoring exchanges within participating districts

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so that neighboring communities participate in exchanges via jointly convened public events termed

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durbars where grass-roots political engagement can proceed, local traditional leadership can be manifest,

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and progress with health development can be celebrated by all.

165 166 Figure 2: The CHPS+ Theory of Change

CHPS+ System learning

National Policy Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Division Secretariat

2 CHPS+ Regions

C

Regions

Learning system utilization for policy

Policy exchanges

leadership

4 System Learning Districts

D Peer learning exchanges

B

Diffusion of implementation

A

4-6 Sub4-6 Sub4-6 Sub4-6 Subdistricts per 4-6 Subdistricts per districts per districts per district districts per district district district district

Districts Leadership leadership development

Sub-districts Diffusion of implementation

leadership

E

Communitybased demonstration

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Implementing CHPS+: The Systems Learning Districts (SLD). GEHIP has made considerable

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progress in creating these conditions in four of Ghana’s most impoverished districts. There is a need to 6

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convert these districts from experimental zones into SLDs where the elements of system resilience can be

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demonstrated for replication (Text Box 1).

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CHPS+ will create SLDs not only as districts of excellence and innovation for the rest of the

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districts to emulate, but also as localities where a culture of health service excellence and systems thinking

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can be demonstrated, studied, and disseminated as a process of community-based primary health care

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development that has been tested by GEHIP, but remains untested as a replicable strategy for scale-up. To

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maximize capabilities to replicate GEHIP, teams from the SLD will be taken through visitation cycles, first

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to the GEHIP intervention districts in the Upper East Region, and then to SLDs that the project will generate,

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where they will learn about GEHIP development processes from peers who have managed and implemented

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the program. In this manner, CHPS+ will be an experiment in the utilization of an experiment. TEXT BOX 1

What is a System Learning District? Implementation research on the early CHPS start-up era showed that workshops, policy instructions, and technical assistance had little lasting impact on the pace of national CHPS introduction. By 2008, 92% of the national CHPS coverage was located in 38 districts that had participated in exchanges organized by the Nkwanta Health Development Centre or the Navrongo Health Research Centre. Systems Learning Districts will be convened to replicate this experience, but apply systems leadership development lessons from GEHIP to the regimen of learning. SLD will conduct activities that replicate early CHPS exchanges: 

Focusing on finding “champions of change”: Invitees will be prioritized by evidence of past commitment to CHPS and ideational leadership in making CHPS work.



Team building: SLD exchanges will focus on implementation teamwork, avoiding the workshop pitfalls of selecting individuals and extracting them from their implementation teams and functions for a few days of didactic training.



Implementation-based training: Participating teams will know in advance that SLD training has resources to commit for implementing a pilot CHPS zone, but that implementation will have expectations that teams will learn about, milestones that include community, political, and development sector engagement. By teaming participants with SLD implementers, CHPS milestones will be demonstrated via a participatory process rather than through lectures and documents.



Guided diffusion outcomes: Trainees will be equipped to develop demonstration and scale-up capacity within their home districts. The goal of each SLD is to ensure that every participating district has a demonstration CHPS zone and capacity to develop demonstration sub-district. CHPS+ will foster the creation of a system of implementation that extends from doorsteps, to CHPS zones, to sub-district Health Centres, and District Health Management Teams. Systems capacity will set the stage for districtwide CHPS implementation, since pilot capacity can be translated into a participating district program of guided diffusion, whereby communities learn from communities, sub-district teams learn from counterparts, and district managers have an organized resource for accelerating CHPS implementation.



Model functionality: SLD will have model data systems with capabilities to demonstrate data capture, analysis, and use. All essential primary health care functions will be implemented with technical support from UDS/TTH and UHAS faculty. All SLD will have training capabilities, linked to regional training unis and counterpart academic units of participating universities. The GHS will ensure that demonstration zones have a full complement of staffing: community nurses, midwives, supervisors, CHPS coordinators, and fully staff District Health Management Teams.

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Collaborating partners. The overall goal of the project is to develop sustainable capacity to

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implement, monitor, and evaluate a health systems strengthening strategy in Ghana that will improve

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national capabilities to scale-up community-based primary health care coverage, quality, and impact. This

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approach of phased capacity building for scale-up will create a culture of health service excellence and

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systems thinking within the GHS and demonstrate the process of community-based primary health care

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development that has been tested by GEHIP. The project will assemble into a single system of care

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successful health system strengthening innovations. By integrating capacity-building functions into existing

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regional and local training institutions, in partnership with a university-based capacity-building program,

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CHPS+ will pursue the objective of institutionalizing health systems development and build a unified and

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sustainable Ghanaian system of community-based primary health care. CHPS+ will implement an

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integrated management approach by bringing together institutions involved in training health professionals,

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and individuals who have played pioneering roles in health development innovations and strengthening in

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Ghana.

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The implementation of CHPS+ service and systems strengthening activities will be the

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responsibility of the Ghana Health Service Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) Division.

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This will ensure that CHPS+ builds upon a legacy of implementation expertise, yet coordinates its efforts

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with the investments and regional programs of other donors and initiatives that must coordinate their

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priorities and activities with the GHS, enabling the CHPS+ partnership to function more in the manner of

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a national consortium than a project. The Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) at the University

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of Ghana will lead the research and evaluation effort for CHPS+ in the two regions. The University for

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Development Studies (UDS) and the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), as well as the University of Health

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and Allied Sciences (UHAS), are responsible for training the next generation of health professionals in the

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Northern and Volta regions of Ghana. Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health will provide

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technical support in the areas of implementation, research, and capacity building.

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EVALUATION DESIGN

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Household Survey. CHPS+ will test the implementation hypothesis that the pace of expansion of

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CHPS population coverage can be significantly increased relative to the pace of CHPS expansion in districts

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not yet exposed to CHPS+ interventions. A three component mixed method evaluation strategy has been

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launched for program evaluation involving : i) baseline and endline randomized cluster sample survey with

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247clusters dispersed in 14 districts of the Northern and Volta Regions for assessing the effect of cluster

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exposure to CHPS+ activities on childhood survival; ii) a monitoring system for assessing the association

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of changes in service system readiness with CHPS+ interventions; and iii) a program of qualitative systems

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appraisal (QSA) to gauge stakeholder perceptions of systems problems, reactions to CHPS+ interventions,

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and perceptions of change. Temporal variance in project implementation will be monitored to provide 8

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stepped wedge recorded differential exposure to operations. Integrated survey and M&E data will permit

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multi-level longitudinal models of impact; longitudinal QSA data will provide data on the implementation

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process.

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Assessing Impact. CHPS+ will have core, intermediate outcome, and process endpoints, each

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requiring systems of data capture, data management, and analysis to gauge project impact. These core

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endpoints and indicators will be consistent with the Ghana Ministry of Health core indicators of health

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improvement with instruments designed to maximize comparability with national Ghana Demographic and

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Health Survey instruments. This will involve indicators of under-five mortality, infant mortality, and

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neonatal mortality by gender of child; age specific and total fertility rates and proximate determinants that

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are relevant to policy; and indicators of parental health seeking behavior, such as skilled attendant delivery,

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care of sick children, exposure to community-based services, distance to health facility and utilization of

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facilities for essential care. Critical covariates essential to the understanding of equity and impact, such as

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educational attainment, household economic status, and distance to service point will also be assessed.

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CHPS+ will utilize impact assessment strategies that have worked well for GEHIP. Routine

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compilation of time trends indicators will be supplemented with end-of-project difference-in-differences

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calculations for each indicator. This econometric strategy has been applied elsewhere for the assessment of

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non-randomized plausibility trials (Dimick & Ryan 2014; Conley & Taber 2005; Donald & Lang 2007) and

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successfully applied to the evaluation of GEHIP (Bawah et al. 2017) ,The procedures involves collecting

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data in baseline clusters, monitoring systems changes and the timing of these changes, and repeating the

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survey in baseline clusters with a separate endline stage two sample to gauge effects. Regression analysis

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is based on merged baseline and endline data for the estimation of parameters that control for baseline

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differences and contextual confounders, changes over time that are unrelated to interventions, and

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conditional effects of interventions that control for these confounding changes by estimating net

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intervention effects. A difference-in-difference estimate of program effects is given by the child survival

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effect of CHPS+ systems interventions (s) where individual child i is scored 1 if the household is located

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in a cluster that is exposed to CHPS treatment and zero otherwise and z is scored 1 if the case i is observed

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in the endline and zero if the case is observed in the baseline:

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𝑲

𝒉𝒙(𝒕) = 𝒉𝟎 (𝒕)𝒆𝜷𝑺𝒊+ 𝜸 𝒁𝒊 + 𝜹𝒁𝒊𝒋 𝑺𝒊 + ∑𝒌=𝟏 ∅𝒌 𝑿𝒊𝒌

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(1)

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with the vector X defining K nuisance characteristics of the child, the household where the child resides,

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and the time independent distance of the household from hospitals and health centers in study areas. Since

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the interventions of CHPS+ are time bound, multi-level, and complex, actual estimation of (1) will involve

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expanding the model to a multi-level specification with time-dependent effects of S on survival. 9

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Qualitative Systems Appraisal. CHPS+ will conduct longitudinal qualitative research on systems

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functioning, systems changes, and project processes and implementation impact. Techniques employed,

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will be adapted from qualitative research tools of the business and organizational research paradigm

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developed by various authors and applied in various ways as ‘the strategic approach’ (Simmons & Shiffman

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2007; Simmons et al. 2002; ), participatory planning (O’Reilly-de Brún et al. 2016; Leung et al. 2004),

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organizational development (Glaser 1986; Pettigrew et al. 2001; Dalton & Lawrence 1970; Lawrence &

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Lorsch 1969) and people-centered science (Gilson et al. 2011; Sheikh et al. 2014). In this approach, key

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stakeholders are identified at each level of the organization, applying the concept of an open system, and

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research is applied to gauging reactions, advice, or experience of stakeholders at each level. Open systems

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theory emphasizes the importance of adapting formal organizational structure and functioning to the social,

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economic, or political context in which effective functioning can be optimized (Katz & Kahn 1978). In this

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instance, the application of open systems thinking requires any research on the functioning of CHPS to

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focus on the social and political system at the community and district levels, not just health system of the

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GHS. QSA must also be multi-leveled, with qualitative data compiled at the frontline worker, supervisory,

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and managerial level to structure and define a system narrative on the operational design, functioning and

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leadership of CHPS.

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To monitor and interpret the impact of CHPS+ on change, teams participating in CHPS+ must be

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the focus of QSA before their exposure to the intervention, immediately following the intervention, and at

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the end of the project. Examples of this approach, as applied to CHPS have informed the GHS of community

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and worker perceptions of the appropriate design of operations (Nazzar et al. 1995), social constraints to

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particular strategies (Adongo et al. 2014; Adongo et al. 2013; Krumholz et al. 2014), worker reactions to

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CHPS (Nyonator et al. 2008;Nyonator et al. 2005) and stakeholder advice and impressions of the impact of

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interventions on systems change.

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The baseline phase of the QSA will precede the intervention as it will provide the needed contextual

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information to ensure that certain procedures are tailored to the districts for a smoother scale up. In addition

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to this, the QSA will also explore community and health care workers’ perceptions about CHPS and

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CHPS+, and also assess the successes and challenges of the scale up during and after implementation of the

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interventions.

278

DISCUSSION

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CHPS+ will be an implementation research project that develops and tests a strategy for scaling up

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community-based primary health care in Ghana. Despite impressive investment of Government of Ghana

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resources in manpower expansion, equipment, and community facilities, the pace of program

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implementation is unacceptably slow. Community-engagement has been neglected, with programs for

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facility development relying more on contractors than on community commitment to make services work. 10

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Manpower for community services is expanding faster than the availability of facilities where workers can

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be posted. There is a need to redirect investment into low cost and effective alternative strategies for

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expanding CHPS operations that have been demonstrated by the GEHIP project in the Upper East Region,

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but will remain confined to that region unless scaling up strategies are developed and tested. CHPS+ will

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not only fill an information gap in primary health care development in Ghana, its management will be

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integrated into national, regional, and district systems of program coordination. As such, it represents an

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application of embedded science to the process of ensuring essential program ownership of the

291

implementation process (Ghaffar et al. 2013; Ghaffar et al. 2017). It will test a means of accelerating CHPS

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expansion that is based on GEHIP success, but implemented with an approach that aims to demonstrate

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large scale action with lifesaving outcomes. Taken as a system of interventions, training, and program

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development, CHPS+ will demonstrate a practical approach to evidence-based health systems development

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in Sub-Saharan Africa.

296 297

List of abbreviations

298

CHPS

Community-based Health Planning and Services Initiative

299

CHPS+

Program for Strengthening the Implementation of the Community-based Health Planning

300

and Services Initiative in Ghana

301

DHMT

District Health Management Teams

302

FP

Family Planning

303

GEHIP

Ghana Essential Health Intervention Program

304

GHS

Ghana Health Service

305

IMCI

Integrated Management of Childhood Illness

306

ICCM

Integrated Community Case Management

307

NHRC

Navrongo Health Research Centre

308

PPME

Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service

309

QSA

Qualitative Systems Appraisal

310

RH

Reproductive Health

311

RIPS

Regional Institute for Population Studies

312

SLD

System Learning District

313

TTH

Tamale Teaching Hospital

314

UDS

University of Development Studies

315

UHAS

University of Health and Allied Sciences

316 317

Declarations 11

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Ethics Approval and consent to participate IRB approval has been granted by the ethical review board of the Ghana Health Service under protocol number GHS-ERC 04/01/2017 and by the Research and Compliance Administration System of Columbia University under protocol number IRB-AAAR0315. Consent for publication Not applicable. Availability of data and material The National Program for Strengthening the Implementation of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative in Ghana (CHPS+) is an ongoing protocol that is currently in the baseline data collection phase. Under agreement with parties to the project protocol and its primary donor, Columbia University will be responsible for ensuring data sharing within the CHPS+ partnership and public domain access to core data resources of the project within two years of completion of the project via an open access portal to be installed at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/AHI. Competing Interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Funding CHPS+ is implemented with support provided by a grant to Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundations (Grant # 2016107). Author’s contributions The CHPS+ initiative was designed by JFP, JKA, and AAB and its protocol was developed by JFP in collaboration with JKA, AAB, and MCS. The manuscript was adapted from the protocol by MCS with sections on implementation revised by JFP, JKA, NK, and BAN. Research and evaluation methods sections were reviewed and revised by JFP, AAB, AB, EFJ, POA, and PK. Acknowledgements:

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Preparation of this article was supported by grants of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s (DDCF) African Health Initiative to the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. The authors gratefully acknowledge advisory support of members of the DDCF African Health Advisory Council Members and guidance of the Ghana Health Service CHPS+ Strategic Advisory Committee chaired by Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, MB.ChB, MPH.

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