Rise Consortium

BACKGROUND

Effective dissemination is essential for ensuring research has a timely impact on policy and practice, yet in public health, targeted and tailored dissemination remains rare. Current dissemination practices are often passive, lack partner & community collaborator (PCC) input and not tailored to non-scientific audiences. The RISE Dissemination and Engagement Core (DEC) addresses this gap by systematically identifying and engaging PCCs, including clinicians, policymakers, and community representatives, across Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, tailoring dissemination strategies to each audience and context.

Similarly, there is little information available on what dissemination strategies work best and how they can be tailored to different groups of people. The DEC builds on the Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children (Global WACh) Dissemination Toolkit, developed at the University of Washington and successfully employed across more than ten studies in Kenya, extending and adapting it to the specific needs of each RISE country. Thus allowing for cross-country comparisons, refinement of dissemination strategies and early course-correcting where necessary.

By engaging early adopters and key influencers across health systems, policy bodies, and communities, the DEC aims to accelerate the uptake of findings into guidelines and programming that support healthy development for children and families, including in areas of early childhood development, neurodevelopment, nutrition, and nurturing care, with a focus on children affected by HIV.

OBJECTIVES

1) Identify and engage the network of partners and community collaborators (PCCs), including healthcare providers, policymakers, community leaders, and advocates, in each country to understand which evidence matters most to them and how it should be shared.

2) Develop country‑tailored dissemination plans for each of the RISE projects that build on the Global WACh Dissemination Toolkit, and co‑create customized engagement strategies with local project leads to ensure findings are shared in ways that are accessible and actionable in each setting.

3) Disseminate RISE findings through publications, conferences, and national health forums, and track whether they reach and inform the intended audiences and institutions, with the ultimate goal of shaping guidelines, policies and care for children and families.

TEAM

SENIOR ADVISING MULTIPLE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR