Governance, Equity and Health (GEH) is one of five Social and Economic Policy (SEP) program components, all of which support applied research that has a direct link to critical policy challenges facing the governments of developing countries. So why did GEH choose to invest in research supporting the ART rollout in Free State?

“GEH’s focus is finding ways to meet critical health challenges in a way that strengthens the overall health system,” explains Brent Herbert-Copley, SEP’s director. “The Free State project was a perfect fit for GEH, which supports projects that can have system-wide impacts on health care. The Free State project is attempting to answer a big question: how do you effectively deliver treatment to AIDS patients in a country like South Africa? This has major implications for other countries in Africa.”

Strong buy-in from policy- and decision-makers made the Free State project very attractive to GEH. “We’re dealing with sophisticated people who want the expertise of the best people and the best institutions,” says Brent Herbert-Copley. “The reason this project is working is because the government of Free State wants it to work.”

Another strength of the project is that it is truly multidisciplinary, drawing on the perspectives of the health care and research community, biomedical experts, health care economists, and experts in information systems. “I think that’s a reflection of the increasing recognition among governments of the scale and urgency of the HIV/AIDS crisis,” he says, “which is just one of many signs of hope.”

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