German Health Practice Collection

The German Health Practice Collection is a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and KfW Entwicklungsbank.

Since 2004, it has involved experts working in German-supported health and social protection programmes around the globe in a collaborative knowledge management process, seeking to identify, document and widely share results and lessons learnt which programmes generate during their implementation.

Inclusion in the Collection does not depend on whether a programme was ‘successful’ (e.g. demonstrable, sustainable, positive results), but on whether the way it tackled implementation bottlenecks offers new insights. The focus is on generating new delivery knowledge by analysing how German-supported programmes and their partner institutions deal with implementation challenges they encounter, how they adapt their approaches accordingly, and what they learn in the process about effective implementation.

How are GHPC case studies researched and produced?

Experienced researchers-writers conduct background research, field visits and interviews, and work closely with programme staff, representatives of partner organisations to

Explore, with both partner institutions and the German agency supporting them, how they addressed a crucial development challenge;
Look at how the implementation of the programme evolved, how different kinds of implementation bottlenecks were addressed, and how the approach was adjusted accordingly;
Describe the results of the interventions in terms of specific outcomes for the beneficiaries, as well as for the policy and reform process in the given partner country; and
Generate broader learning about both the development challenge and the implementation of interventions to address it.

Two independent peer reviewers review the final text to assess how the case study has answered its guiding questions and whether it has generated new insights regarding the implementation of the given approach and the development challenge it addresses.

Long and short versions of the publications are made available on the Healthy DEvelopments web portal, as well as in hard copy.