Health Systems Strengthening Practice Spotlight: Outcome Harvesting

The Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Practice Spotlight series is an initiative of USAID’s Office of Health Systems. Practice Spotlight briefs discuss specific health systems strengthening approaches and how they were successfully applied in USAID-supported or other HSS program settings. By documenting approaches that work, Practice Spotlight briefs can inform strategic planning, program design, and implementation in the HSS space. The briefs support USAID’s Vision for Health System Strengthening 2030 and the accompanying Health System Strengthening Learning Agenda.

This Practice Spotlight brief describes outcome harvesting, a monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning approach that can help tease out the specific impacts of HSS interventions conducted in complex environments, where many factors may influence an outcome. The brief presents use cases from projects that have used the approach, along with key lessons and recommendations for applying the approach.