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In 2023, a total of 40 peer-reviewed journal publications were supported by PSI projects or had PSI-affiliated co-authors. These publications feature research from 24 countries and have generated insights in cross-cutting areas including self-care and digital consumer and digital healthcare provider solutions, and market-based approaches. 

These studies examine preferences for partner-delivered HIV self-tests in Zimbabwe, the acceptability of a pleasure-oriented sexual and reproductive health chatbot in Kenya, consumer and healthcare provider preferences related to self-sampling for HPV screening in Mozambique, the quality of facility-based distribution of insecticide treated nets for malaria prevention in Ghana, and much more. 

PSI strives for inclusive and equitable authorship in scientific publications. In 2023, 42% of lead authors were based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and 70% of lead authors were women. Eleven publications were by first-time first authors. More than 92% of publications included an LMIC-based author in any authorship position. Nearly all (97%) of our data-based publications were free of authorship parasitism, which is the lack authorship representation from the countries providing data.¹

See below to explore our most discussed, most viewed, most cited publications of the year, as well as a full list of all 2023 publications!

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Dionne Oguna, a Senior Communications Specialist for PSI’s flagship youth contraceptive project A360, sat with Christophe Hitayezu, Pandemic Health Mentor at Internews, Quinta Yuochi, Editor and Chief at Equate Women’s Magazine, and Sara Jerving, Global Health Reporter at DevEx, to discuss why covering women’s health is essential to advancing gender equality, and what journalists need to overcome the challenges in telling her story.

Tune into the conversation, below.

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Why is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) important? And how can stronger health systems deliver better and faster consumer-powered healthcare?

We asked five PSI board members —Dr. Stephen Tang, Madhu Bala Nath, Abhijit Dutta, Dr. Sadiah Ahsan Pal, and Mike Joubert— to weigh in. Listen in, below.

What is slowing progress toward UHC?

How can we achieve UHC?

How can we build stronger health systems?

How can health system accountability lead to better public health?

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What’s the connection between climate change and health?

Christophe Hitayezu, the Pandemic Health Mentor at Internews, speaks with Alison Malmqvist, Director of Sexual & Reproductive Health at PSI, and Charles Kabiswa, Executive Director of Regenerate Africa, to explore climate change’s direct and indirect effects on health consumers, especially women and girls.

The post Health Impact Amidst Climate Change appeared first on PSI.

What is your background, and what brings you to PSI?

I started my career working in housing-related nonprofits. Over time, I became more interested in making positive change within organizations over the technical work I was doing in homelessness. I ended up getting a PhD in Leadership and Organizational Change and I joined the board of an organization focused on inclusion and belonging (I&B) in nonprofits. In my last few roles, I have been fortunate to be able to put those two things together and lead I&B work. PSI’s reputation as a technically strong, joyful place to work preceded it, and I was excited about the challenge of developing an I&B function that could take it to the next level and work effectively across multiple countries. 

What are the responsibilities of the Senior Advisor role? 

As a Senior Advisor, I’ll be working on defining PSI’s vision and strategy around I&B and then, to increase our staff’s capacity for this work, creating a learning curriculum based on our strategy. I will also be helping to clarify organizational expectations about staff behaviors and competencies around inclusion and build out I&B resources to support PSI’s programmatic work. 

Of course, I can’t do this work in isolation, and I will be facilitating PSI’s I&B Council and Employee Resource Groups to embed the voice of staff from across our global network. I’ll also closely partner with our Human Resources network and leadership teams to ensure that this work shows up in our policies and practices. Ultimately my goal is to build out and implement an internal and external I&B strategy to ensure that PSI’s values show up in every aspect of our work. 

How do you make inclusion and belonging relevant on a global scale? How do you make sure your work is truly cross-cultural?

With a large organization with thousands of employees around the world, it can be hard to find the things that feel like relevant shared concepts, but power is one of them. Even though which groups have power and why may vary across contexts, power dynamics and inequities exist everywhere. Building a greater awareness of power and exploring these concepts through our mission and strategy are things that can really unite us. Also, no matter what language we may use to describe it, I believe there is a shared desire to experience a workplace that gives us all a sense of belonging. 

Any one person in this role, no matter where they are located, needs to have a deep self-awareness to do this work in a way that does not center themselves, their country, or their team. That’s especially true when this role is located in the US, a region that has typically enjoyed more power in the development sector. To make sure I’m bringing a more balanced perspective, I’m constantly reading and learning and engaging with other practitioners. Within the PSI space, I’m traveling to meet folks in person when I can, connecting virtually with multiple teams and groups regularly, and ensuring that there is space for the elevation of multiple perspectives through various channels across the organization. I am perhaps most directly accountable to our CEO, the board, and our I&B Council, but I try to make it easier for everyone to hold me accountable by establishing a strategy and sharing our goals with the network. Because I&B often covers sensitive topics, we also have anonymous mechanisms for staff to share ideas and concerns beyond our trainings and webinar discussions.  

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see at PSI? In the international development sector more broadly?

A lot of work and principles behind this work long predated me, including things like our sign-ons and commitments to the Coalition for Racial & Ethnic Equity in Development (CREED) pledge and  the minimum gender standards. We had a staff-initiated I&B Council and were reporting out externally on representation data before I arrived. There were clear signs of enthusiasm and commitment for this work, and this role is an opportunity to build and expand upon that. PSI also has a long history of consumer-powered health care and human-centered design which rely on some of these same principles. 

The sector at large is grappling with who is and should be at the center of the decision-making and agency in international development work. The usual work of challenging power, creating spaces for more voices, changing processes, and influencing change is harder when you are trying to achieve it across such a broad context in an increasingly interconnected and polarized world. The international context creates opportunities for greater collaboration and learning because of how many people this work touches, but the complexity means it will take a lot of energy and sustained, longer-term donor commitment to translate good intentions into change. 

What can external stakeholders and friends of PSI expect to see as a result of this work? 

We will continue to share data about our progress via our website, similar to what we do now on representation.  Once we complete our strategy in 2024, we will be able to share that with the world. For those who work in the same technical areas as we do, I am confident you will continue to hear about how we reflect this in our programmatic work at conferences across the globe. We are eager to continue engaging with peer organizations that do this work, so please reach out!  

Interested in learning more about inclusion and belonging at PSI? Contact Kim Walker (kwalker@psi.org).

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By Peninah Thande, Social Media Optimization Advisor, PSI; Alfred Samba Makavore, Project Country Manager-EpiC, PSI Sierra Leone; Emmanuel Jah, EpiC Communications Coordinator, PSI Sierra Leone

In the realm of healthcare communication, the power of digital marketing cannot be underestimated. Under the project funded by USAID, Populations Services International (PSI) in collaboration with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health (MoH) embarked on a groundbreaking project to leverage digital tools to promote COVID-19 vaccination (COVAX). With a target audience of social media users age 18-65, this endeavor sought to tackle the challenges faced in the implementation of Sierra Leone’s vaccination strategy.

 

Identifying the Challenges

Understanding the hurdles in the COVAX strategy was vital to tailor the digital marketing plan effectively. The MoH identified the following challenges to vaccine uptake in Sierra Leone:

• Low demand for the second dose of COVAX
• Access barriers, including transportation costs and access to information
• Misinformation about the vaccines and COVID-19
• Limited availability of vaccines due to stock-outs

 

To address these barriers to COVAX, PSI and the MoH identified target online market locations with low , including the districts of Western Area Urban & Rural, and the cities of Bo, Kenema, Makeni, and Koidu. With these target populations combined, EpiC aimed to reach over 1 million people with the COVAX digital campaign.

 

Building Capacity for Digital Marketing

We started by ensuring that EpiC staff and MOH officials understood the impact of and best practices for using digital marketing to improve health outcomes. The communications staff and MoH members enrolled in the Digital Media for Health Outcomes Course by Yale University; and later joined the Digital Media For Health Outcomes community of practice on Facebook, where health communicators learn and share best practices for using digital media for health outcomes.

Prior to launching the campaign, PSI conducted a comprehensive three-day capacity building session for the Ministry of Health officials, based on a needs assessment done within the MoH. The training encompassed best practices for online health campaigns on all major platforms, creating valuable content, defining the target audience, and utilizing data to make informed decisions.

A close collaboration with the Ministry of Health Sierra Leone from the beginning ensured alignment with the government’s objectives. The Ministry took a leading role in steering initiatives, actively driving efforts to enhance COVID-19 vaccine adoption and counteract vaccine misinformation.

This internal capacity building led to the designing and implementation of an effective campaign plan, starting with the launch of PSI Sierra Leone’s Facebook page, Instagram profile and Twitter (X) profile.

 

Campaign Design

With the identified barriers to COVAX uptake in mind, including vaccine access, acceptance, and misinformation, we built a campaign to help individuals in the target populations overcome them.

The campaign unfolded in three phases: Phases 1 & 2 focused on vaccine acceptance and adoption, while Phase 3 sought to address vaccine misinformation. To make sure our messaging resonated with people of all ages, we tailored our approach for two primary audience segments: people aged 18-35 years, and people aged 36-65 years. Each segment was targeted using age-appropriate graphics and messaging addressing the specific COVAX misconceptions prominent within each age bracket.

For example, a common misconception among young people was that a lemon & ginger beverage could help prevent COVID-19, while pepper-based beverages were more commonly believed to prevent COVID-19 among older age groups. By segmenting the age groups, campaign messaging was able to effectively counter these misconceptions and communicate the importance of getting vaccinated. We included the local language, Krio, into our creatives and captions. This localized touch was instrumental in making our messages resonate more profoundly within the community.

In tandem with educational material, we also ran a community growth campaign throughout that led to the creation of the PSI Sierra Leone Facebook page growing to 11,000 followers. This platform will help us maintain health communications in Sierra Leone to bolster access to quality, reliable information.  

 

Results and key takeaways – phase 1

The first phase was highly successful, reaching over 1 million people and growing our online community by 11,000 people in Sierra Leone. The average engagement rate for all campaigns was 16.5 percent, well beyond the industry indicating the success of the campaign in promoting COVAX education and countering misinformation.

With the second phase underway, the following are initial takeaways from the campaign’s first phase:

• Capacity building for MoH health communication officials ensured the digital campaigns aligned with government objectives and needs.
• Pairing the digital campaign with in-person education via the MoH network of health workers and COVID-19 champions localized the campaign by promoting campaign messaging in partnership with relatable community leaders. 
• Localizing messaging by including Krio and age segmentation helped the campaign resonate with the target audience, leading to high reach and engagement rates.
• Digital marketing tools were effective in reaching the intended audience and addressing their concerns on easily accessible platforms.

 

Next Steps

This project’s success has laid the foundation for future endeavors to leverage digital tools for public health communication in Sierra Leone, including and beyond COVAX. Moving forward, PSI will partner with the MoH to integrate COVAX into routine immunizations, build a national health chatbot, digitize for community health workers, and develop These initiatives are essential in enhancing consumer powered healthcare and strengthening health systems in Sierra Leone.

This project showcases the power of digital healthcare by bridging the gap in COVAX information. By understanding barriers to health and tailoring interventions accordingly, we can use digital tools to reach people where they are, with the resources and information they need to stay healthy.

We will continue to share insights related to the COVAX digital campaign in Sierra Leone. Interested in learning more about the power of digital healthcare? Contact Cristina Lussiana (clussiana@psi.org).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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