Collaborative Research and Community of Practice
Strategic Support for Impact and Accountability
Advocacy for Equity-Oriented Policies and Strategies
Sharing Resources
Emerging evidence highlights the effectiveness of social accountability strategies in health workforce education. Yet questions remain unanswered:
THEnet’s global research teams collaborate with partners to answer these questions and build a solid evidence base for educating a health workforce that meets local needs.
To get an overview of THEnet’s research since 2008, read a recent article written by THEnet’s research team. To view more articles authored by THEnet members and research team, explore our Resources page and to view videos of our workshops and presentation click here.
We worked for the Touch Foundation and with the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania to conduct a Social Return on Investment study assessing the health, economic, and social benefits of community-based clinical placements, involving feedback from community members themselves. It showed a near doubling of the return on investment in the program.
The study examined how eight THEnet schools from various countries integrated their social accountability mission into their medical education and how students perceived that mission. It analyzed how missions that focus on access to care, equity or community service are practically implemented through externalization and internalization steps.
We surveyed 184 hospital and community facility staff, about THEnet school graduates. They outperformed peers from conventional schools and rated above average in performance, clinical skills, teamwork, professional attitudes, and commitment to equity. This is attributed to a community-based and equity-oriented curriculum.
THEnet’s advocacy for cross-sector and health system policies and strategies that improve health equity and quality of care for all, incorporate the principles of social accountability, health equity and community engagement. We advocate for partnering with communities and across sectors to ensure that health system policies and strategies that:
We helped organize a meeting of experts at the National Academies to develop recommendations for a global conference on The Essential Role of Primary Health Care to Health Security and Securing Health. A current and a former dean of THEnet founding schools presented their work to build a primary care workforce.
We influence educators and contribute to publications as members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Department’s Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education. For example: A Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health.
Building on outcomes and practical experience across contexts, THEnet supports health professional schools, governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and foundations. We conduct evaluations, provide social accountability consulting, develop theories of change, and help institutions build the frameworks and evidence systems they need to demonstrate and improve their impact on the communities they serve.
Our approach draws on the collective expertise of our global network of partner institutions – schools that have built social accountability into their practice in some of the most demanding settings in the world. We engage deeply with clients from scoping through execution, ensuring strategies are grounded in context, co-developed with stakeholders, and built to last.
Equity efforts stall without community partnership, cross-sector collaboration, and learning loops that drive improvements and sustainable impact
THEnet participated in a three-phase feasibility study with Expertise France and provided guidance to Agence Française de Développement and the Ministry of Health of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire on strategies to strengthen community health and improving health workforce education, recruitment, and retention in rural areas.
THEnet is working with a US-based social mission-oriented health professional school serving a predominantly underserved community to work with stakeholders to develop a theory of change, build a context-specific social mission framework, and align institutional strategies and evaluations with stated community impact goals.
THEnet teams conducted the multi-country midterm evaluations of PEPFAR’s $130 million-dollar Medical Education Partnership for Africa and the $30 million-dollar Global Nursing Capacity Building Program. The goal was to assess progress towards expanding and improving health professional education across the continent.
We review standards and conduct assessments for the World Federation of Medical Education. We are member of the International Social Accountability and Accreditation Steering Committee and helped plan the Global Symposium on Health Workforce Accreditation and Regulation in Istanbul, organized by the WHO, the Global Health Workforce Network and the ECFMG.
Our Resource Center is a searchable repository of tools, articles, reports, and case studies from across disciplines and countries to advance health equity and improve health systems. This repository supports educators, researchers, and practitioners to drive socially accountable projects and improve the quality and equity of healthcare worldwide.
For example, if your education institution wants to engage its stakeholders in assessing how socially accountable they are, they can check out the tools associated with our Social Accountability Framework.
We initially developed the Evaluation Framework for Socially Accountable Health Professional Education to measure progress and outcomes of social accountability. This foundational work emphasized clarity and universal applicability and engages stakeholders in evaluating impact. It has been adapted globally and elements are integrated into accreditation standards.
Charlie Labarda, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM-SHS), where he has taught for more than a decade. He is a regular member of the National research Council of the Philippines, belonging to the Medical Sciences Division (Division III). Before joining the medical faculty at UPM-SHS he trained in at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. He finished his PhD in the Department of Psychology at The University of Hong Kong, his Master in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management (high honors), Doctor of Medicine (cum laude) at the Our Lady of Fatima University-College of Medicine, and his undergraduate Social Sciences studies (cum laude) at UP Tacloban College. He was a topnotcher in the Physician Licensure Examination (8th place).
He served as the Unit Faculty Representative to the All UP Academic Employees Union-Manila Chapter. He is also part of the UPM-SHS core faculty for the Leadership and Development Program (LDP) capacitating local chief executives (governors and mayors) in strengthening their health systems to achieve the goals of universal health care and sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the Philippine government. He also volunteers as civil society partner of DSWD in its 4Ps Program as Vice-Chairperson for the National Independent Monitoring Committee (NIMC). He also helps in various DOH and WHO projects in line with his advocacies around medical education, health equity, disaster public health, resilient and healthy communities, and mental health especially in low resource settings. Recently he became part of the Data Science for Public Policy Working Group based at the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP-CIDS), promoting the use of data science for public policy.
Dr. Dharamsi currently serves as the Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. With 25 years of experience, he brings an interdisciplinary background and extensive international and community development experience as an educator, scholar, and administrator.
Dr. Dharamsi’s academic journey began in Canada, where he earned an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and achieved tenure in the Department of Family Medicine. He also co-directed the UBC Center for International Health.
His work is at the intersection of public health, medical humanities, global health, ethics, and the social determinants of health.
Born in Tanzania, Dr. Dharamsi is a first-generation high school and college graduate. He is deeply committed to student success. He began his career as an inner-city schoolteacher.
His career includes leadership roles as regional director for early childhood development and poverty alleviation in East Africa with the Aga Khan Development Network, founding associate dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso, and senior advisor to the provost at New Mexico State University.
Dedicated to advancing public health, Dr. Dharamsi actively serves on the boards of several national and international organizations, including the ASPPH Global Engagement and Partnerships Advisory Committee.
