Projects

The Institute builds on an established record of excellence in global public health program delivery.

Each step of program evolution adheres to the principles of key partnership, sustained engagement, and focus on community.

The program as whole consists of four critical core elements:

1. technical collaboration
2. research
3. education
4. program delivery

Areas of program focus have included HIV/AIDS, reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health (RMNCH), nutrition, and a range of other public health domains.

Since 2008, we have been awarded over 60 project or program grants from multiple funding agencies, including:

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
• CIHR
• Grand Challenges
• USAID
• WHO
• World Bank

The total value of these programs is over $300 million, and they have spanned some or all stages of a public health program cycle, from epidemic appraisal, to program design and delivery, scale-up, and program evaluation.

We have already established programs in the countries listed below. We are now planning to intensify our focus. 

Current countries include:

• Canada
• India
• Kenya
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Ukraine

In future, we plan to expand into South America through collaboration in Peru.

The countries we work were selected because they exhibit areas of poor health with unique challenges as well as significant inequities, particularly among the most vulnerable populations. They also offer distinct epidemiologic cultural and social contexts in which to work and learn.

They were also chosen because of our relationships with government, non-governmental organizations and communities, built and fostered over the past decade.

We are committed to maintaining these partnerships and building on our previous work.

Established: 2012

Governance: private limited company

Based in: Islamabad, Pakistan

How we work: We work with Centre for Global Public Health Pakistan  (CGPH-Pakistan) through a service and collaboration agreement wherein we agree to collaborate on specific programs.

Projects: HIV/AIDS and RMNCH

Established: 2003

Governance: as a trust under the Indian Trust Act and is governed by a Board of Trustees.

Based in: Bangalore and New Delhi, India

How we work: We work with India Health Action Trust (IHAT) through a service and collaboration agreement wherein we agree to collaborate on specific programs. We also provide technical assistance on projects executed by IHAT.

Projects: IHAT has projects on HIV/AIDS, RMNCH and nutrition.

Established: 2003

Governance: Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) is a trust under the Indian Trust act and is governed by a board of Trustees.

Based in: Bangalore, India

How we work: We work with KHPT through a service and collaboration agreement wherein we agree to collaborate on specific programs.

Projects: KHPT has projects on HIV/AIDS, RMNCH, tuberculosis, nutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Established: 2014

Based in: Nairobi, Kenya

Governance: Partners for Health and Development in Africa (PHDA) is a non-governmental organization under the Kenyan Non-Governmental Organization Co-ordination Act and is governed by a Board of Directors.

How we work: We work with PHDA through a service and collaboration agreement wherein we agree to collaborate on specific programs.

Projects: PHDA has projects on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases and RMNCH, as well as a significant portfolio of basic and applied research.

Established: 2014

Governance: West African Centre for Public Health and Development (WACPHD) is a charitable organization under Nigerian law, and is governed by a Board of Trustees.

Based in: Abuja, Nigeria

How we work: We work with WACPHD through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), wherein WACPHD and UM agree to work together on collaborative activities.

Projects: HIV/AIDS

The Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health is a collaboration of academics from global, regional, country institutions, UN agencies and World Bank and civil society organizations, to track progress of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N).  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the main funder of the Countdown.

The Countdown generates global and regional evidence to foster advocacy and accountability for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health through analysis of data on coverage of health interventions, equity and health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Countdown focuses on strengthening country evidence and analytical capacity through working with country analysts from public health institutions, research institutions and ministries of health.

In 2020, Countdown initiated 15 country collaborations through a partnership with the Global Financing Facility (GFF). In addition, work is ongoing on with seven countries on a maternal and newborn health exemplars study, as part of Exemplars in Global Health, to understand the drivers of the maternal and newborn mortality declines during the last two decades.

IGPH is a major actor in the Countdown, with Ties Boerma as director and several IGPH staff are involved. 

• Dessalegn Melesse and Elsabe DuPlessis support the work in Ethiopia which is a collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Ministry of Health, working on and endline review of the 5 year health plan, a maternal and newborn health exemplar study and a study of health in Addis Ababa with a focus on the poor. A related project focusing on district and regional analysis of health facility data in Amhara region, led by Dessalegn Melesse working with regional institutions started in 2022.
• Andrea Blanchard is working closely with the Countdown collaboration in Zambia, which includes the School of Public Health of the University of Zambia and the Ministry of Health, conducting analyses on trends in equity in maternal and child health, maternal and newborn health of the poor in Lusaka, and monitoring of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the continuation of essential health services. 
• Ties Boerma supports the Countdown collaborations with Ifakara Health Instititute and Ministry of Health in Tanzania and Makerere University and Ministry of Health in Uganda, both focusing on using health facility and survey data for regular district monitoring of progress and performance. 
• James Blanchard, Tahira Reza and Faran Emanuel are working with Health Services Academy in Pakistan, to support the Ministry of Health with comprehensive analyses to inform regular national reviews of progress on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.
• In India, the Countdown work focuses on the maternal and newborn health exemplar study which includes a national assessment with in-depth studies in six states. The collaboration involves the National Health Services Research Center in Delhi, International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai, iHAT and the University of Manitoba team with James Blanchard, BM Ramesh, Andrea Blanchard, Kerry Scott, Shajy Isac and Ties Boerma. 

Learn more about Countdown to 2030

The Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU) was formed in 2013 to provide techno-managerial support to the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) to accelerate progress in achieving its goals for improved outcomes in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, and nutrition (RMNCHN). The UP TSU is led by the University of Manitoba’s Institute for Global Public Health, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the largest state in India, with a population over 220 million people. A key feature of the UP TSU is that its technical assistance is integrated within the GoUP’s health system response. The IGPH works closely with the GoUP at the state, district and local levels to optimize RMNCHN programs and services. The UP TSU has entered its third phase of work, and has expanded from its initial focus on 25 districts to working at scale across all 75 districts of the state. 

At the core of our work is the optimization of priority interventions, using health systems, facility and community platforms, to improve the effective coverage of comprehensive RMNCHN programs. Training and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and embedded research are central components of our work, with an emphasis on the use of data at all levels to inform decision-making, policy development and practice. Through an analytical process to improve effective coverage, we aim to reduce inequities that are driven by the combined influences of gender disparities, socio-economic position, geography, and other drivers of inequities.  

Our work in UP is conducted in partnership with a non-governmental organization, the India Health Action Trust (IHAT), as our main implementing partner. We also have specialized technical support from several other partners, including Johns Hopkins University, JHPIEGO, the Community Empowerment Lab (CEL), the Center for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). In our current work, there is a specific focus on transitioning key technical strategies and interventions to the GoUP and UP-based partners, to sustain the progress made on improving health systems and outcomes. Together, we are working to address the GoUP’s goals of achieving key health impact objectives, while strengthening health systems that improve equity in health, and sustain health outcome gains over the long term.

The state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in North India accounts for 25% of under-immunized children in India, and almost 10% of the world’s under-immunized children. The Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) has made concerted efforts to increase the full immunization coverage of children across the state.

In order to help further these goals, the University of Manitoba, in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the India Health Action Trust (IHAT), and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is supporting a Routine Immunization Project Management Unit (RI PMU) with the GoUP. The RI PMU provides technical assistance to the GoUP in achieving its 2022 goals of 90% full immunization coverage.

The RI-PMU functions within the existing Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (TSU) to systematically strengthen routine immunization practices, processes and systems in Uttar Pradesh. The program has three main outcomes:

1. Strengthened data-driven decision making across all levels of immunization.
2. Enhanced state capacity in management, governance and accountability for immunization service delivery.
3. Enhanced RI performance in priority districts and blocks.

PHDA in partnership with UM continues to provide technical support to NASCOP and NACC to strengthen the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs and services in Kenya, and thereby reduce HIV incidence. 

Initiated in October 2021, the objectives of the project are:

• To improve strategic planning and priority setting for HIV prevention
• To improve HIV prevention programme implementation in priority counties
• To improve integration of HIV prevention programs into various health system platforms
• To document and disseminate effective HIV prevention models, methods and tools

The University of Manitoba team will utilize the knowledge being gathered through the situational analysis of the HIV prevention landscape in Kenya as well as previous grants aimed at providing direct technical support to the national HIV program in Kenya. This work will connect closely with other HIV BMGF grants in Kenya that look at testing and prevention, as well as make direct linkages to the national care and treatment program where appropriate.

By creating a platform of technical support and expertise, the project aims to support the national HIV program in achieving the goals set out in the Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework II (2020/21 – 2024/25) and the HIV Prevention Roadmap. The project will work with national and county level governments, as well as PEPFAR and Global Fund implementing partners, Gates grantees, and other key stakeholders to develop innovative ideas to improve HIV related outcomes.

Learn more about PHDA