Scaling Innovations for Impact

Session Date: April 21, 2021

Session Description: Many global health innovations have been developed, introduced, refined and tailored for local contexts in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, very few of these products, practices, and services have yet achieved any meaningful scale. Scaling innovations has proven a challenge in the LMIC context and a real barrier for achieving health impacts. USAID’s Center for Innovation and Impact’s (CII’s) Global Health Innovation Index draws from USAID’s health innovation portfolio to offer a strategic approach by helping identify promising, ready-to-launch innovations. To assess the breadth of health innovations across sectors, geographies, and disciplines, this Global Health Innovation Index presents four criteria: 1) health impact; 2) demand and sustainability; 3) organizational and/or partner capacity; and 4) progress to scale. We share this framework in hopes it can be useful to countries, other donors, and partners as well as to our own health teams. The Index also highlights 9 promising global health innovations that have already scaled to some degree, are ready to scale further, and demonstrate how the Index criteria can be applied. In this session we will chat with Premise, one of the innovators highlighted in the index, and discuss their unique approach to scaling.