Two-week Course in Implementation Science for Family Planning and Reproductive Health, including HIV/STI Prevention and Control

The Evidence Project, along with the University of Washington Department of Global Health, are working in collaboration to deliver a two-week intensive course on implementation science focusing on family planning and reproductive health, including HIV/STI prevention and control.

The course will take place August 3-14, 2015 at the University of Washington in Seattle and will provide participants an introduction to the emerging field of implementation science, with a specific and applied focus on family planning and reproductive health, including HIV/STI prevention and control.

There is growing interest in the field of implementation science and its application to global health challenges. This is especially true in the context of the discovery of new medicines, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and best practices that have the capacity to generate significant improvements in health, including for family planning and reproductive health. However, the translation of these research findings and evidence into large scale practice and policy is often slow and uneven. As a result, many of the solutions to health problems are not applied, leading to a widening gap between what is known and what is done in routine practice.

Resurgence in global focus on family planning, including through FP2020, which challenges countries and donors to expand access to voluntary family planning to 120 million additional contraceptive users by 2020, has increased attention to implementing policies and programs that are based on scientific evidence. Particularly in the context of the millennium development goals (MDGs), reproductive health, including prevention and control of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), is a central focus of many national health programs around the world. Implementation science can address these challenges by applying systematic research and evaluation approaches to identify and address the barriers to effective replication and scale-up of evidence-based interventions in diverse settings. Training policymakers, program managers and research leaders in implementation science methods and their application for family planning and reproductive health, including HIV/STI prevention and control, provides essential skills for stakeholders designing and implementing large scale programs in these areas.

This course will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, funders, and practitioners working in the fields of family planning and reproductive health, including HIV/STI prevention and control in low and middle income settings.