CHS-Connect is a network of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in several institutions across the world. The purpose of this network is to enhance research capacity and competence for designing and conducting “embedded” health policy and systems research to build inclusive, socially accountable, and resilient community health systems (CHS). The wellbeing of people is at the core of every development endeavor aimed at fighting poverty and enhancing people’s quality of life. An embedded approach to the building of community health systems provides researchers an opportunity to collectively define systems constraints and challenges. Additionally, it provides local stakeholders such as practitioners and policy makers the opportunity to collaboratively create solutions while sharing experiences and learning from each other.
The network has two overarching aims:
- To create space for ongoing multidisciplinary community health systems conceptual development.
To undertake this, the network seeks to work with researchers of diverse disciplines and, experiences neatly together by the common interest of building inclusive, socially accountable, and resilient community health systems. The ongoing conceptual development occurs among researchers from several institutions working in related fields. In addition, policymakers and practitioners form an active part of the network, thereby enhancing researcher connections to spaces of power, decision making, and implementation. This ultimately opens spaces for further refinement of our understanding of community health systems and thereby providing a platform upon which we can find contextually relevant CHS research questions along which to collaborate.
- To build a base for future research collaborations along with wider and bigger projects and grant ideas.
Successful research collaborations are built on mutual relationships that take time and effort to develop. We devote considerable effort to strengthening our existing relationships while at the same time expanding our networks to keep the dynamism but also more importantly share diverse experiences and lessons from across the globe. From each of the collaborating institutions and beyond, we shall form teams of senior and junior researchers that shall become active members of the network. This will facilitate inter-generational learning while at the same time creating space for innovation and stability facilitated by a mix of younger and older researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Envisioned is a birth of inter-country grant applications and consequently projects, this will further promote learning across systems. This promotes inclusivity, accountability and builds a base for resilience.