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Improving immunization coverage and equity - technical resources
Comparing Resources
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| Resource | EQUIST Equitable strategies to save lives |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To reduce health disparities between the most marginalized mothers and young children and the better-off. EQUIST is an web-based analytical modeling tool designed to sharpen health plans and policies and make responsible decisions about how to strengthen their health systems. It helps decision-makers to develop equitable strategies to improve health and nutrition for the most vulnerable children and women. |
| Content | Follows a stepwise approach, in which users first define and understand their target population, then select priority interventions to focus on and consider what bottlenecks affect the delivery of these interventions. Then they develop strategies to address the causes of the bottlenecks and estimate the costs and impacts of the strategies. The process can be repeated to compare alternative strategy options. Incorporates functionality of the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to model lives saved and uses data and principles from the Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks (MBB) tool for costing component. It identifies cost-effective interventions, prioritizes key bottlenecks that constrain their coverage and targets the most effective and equity focused strategies that can address those bottlenecks to increase maternal, neonatal and child health, intervention coverage and fast track the reduction of maternal and child mortality, especially among deprived populations. |
| Expected outcomes | Impacts are calculated as reductions of disparities in access to, and quality coverage of, essential health services. |
| Use | Does not necessarly require user input, as the data is available. However, some country customization, and input of the latest data is advisable. |
| Strengths | (a) The tool is simpler and more user-friendly than previous tools, with most of the calculations happening automatically. (b) The tool can still be customized to suit countries’ unique priorities and approaches to healthcare. (c) EQUIST is also more explicitly equity-focused than previous versions. |
| Contraints/Limitations | EQUIST is not designed as a tool for costing the entire health programs, but rather for comparing the costs of alternative strategies added into existing health systems. Target populations are limited to mothers & children 0-5. |
| Why use it | (a) Zero dose and under immunised - Enables targeting by planners of populations of the most vulnerable mothers, infants and children 0-5 years in a given geographic location. (b) Designed to highlight disparities between socio economic groupings. |
| Who should use it | Health policymakers and program managers, district manager or partners. The tool was designed principally for developing countries as well as middle-income countries with remaining pockets of exclusion. It can be used at any level of the health system and can be used for individual programs. |
| Example criteria this resource could address | Can be used to identify priority populations, interventions, bottlenecks and operational strategies, and estimating the required additional resources for strengthening various elements of health system. |
| If available, notes on the development process | After developing the framework for 'Equitable Impact Sensitive Tool', a study was undertaken by populating the tool with necessary data and conduct the first implementation of EQUIST in studying the cost-effectiveness of community case management of childhood pneumonia in 5 low - and middle-income countries with relation to equity impact. The study was published by the Centre for Population Health Sciences and Global Health Academy, The University of Edinburgh Medical School in the Journal of Global Health in December 2012. UNICEF has further developed the EQUIST as a powerful web-based free-access, analytical platform. |
| Additional Links | |
| Link to access the resource | /en/resources/tool/equist-equitable-strategies-to-save-lives |
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