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07 November 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Implementation Science Workshop 2024
Building capacity for the use of implementation science. The Principal Investigators of the project; Dr Phindile Shangase from UFS, left, and Dr Lebogang Mogongoa from the Central University of Technology, with Dr Shalini Ahuja from King’s College London, centre, who facilitated the workshops.

The Division of Public Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) together with the Central University of Technology (CUT), held a successful workshop (first phase) for their project: Capacity building for the use of implementation science in various typologies in low- and middle-income countries for the prevention and/or management of the quadruple burden of disease.

According to the National Institute for Health as well as the World Health Organisation, implementation science supports innovative approaches to identifying, understanding, and overcoming barriers to the adoption, adaptation, integration, scale-up and sustainability of evidence-based interventions, tools, policies, and guidelines. Implementation research therefore pertains to gathering and analysing implementation evidence of effectiveness that determines if the intervention works in real-world circumstances.

The Principal Investigator at UFS is Dr Phindile Shangase from the Division of Public Health, supported by colleagues in the Division, as well as the CUT team, led by Dr Lebogang Mogongoa. The first phase of the project took place from 14-17 October 2024 with the first two days held at UFS.

In this co-funded project, UFS and CUT engage in partnership capacity building for academics and postgraduate students. At the UFS, the project is funded by the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation and resulted from the CUT and UFS Joint Research Programme Research Grant 9th Call.

Contributing to evidence-based policies and practices

Dr Shangase says the workshops of this project were well attended by academics, researchers, postgraduate and postdoctoral students from different disciplines, and community organisations, including programme managers, as well as clinicians from the Department of Health. Other stakeholders and international students who could not travel for face-to-face interactions attended live on UFS YouTube.

Workshops were facilitated by Dr Shalini Ahuja from King’s College, London, who is an international expert and experienced in this field through engaging in research as well as field facilitation in various low- and middle-income countries.

Says Dr Shangase: “Implementation science is the study of methods and strategies to promote the systematic uptake of research findings. It contributes to evidence-based policies and practices and ensures that they are implemented effectively to achieve their intended outcomes, through the identification of barriers and facilitators to implementation. These strategies can therefore be integrated effectively into routine practice in healthcare, public health, and other fields.

“Reviewed studies indicate that the effectiveness of implementation research is noted in the identification and investigation of factors that address disparities in healthcare delivery and outcomes, including those within the health systems and in the population. In simple terms, the goal of implementation science is to understand how and why some interventions succeed while others fail, and to identify the best ways to integrate research-backed interventions into real-world settings for maximum impact and to ensure they continue to be used and remain effective over time,” says Dr Shangase.

Purpose of project

According to her, in the context of South Africa, implementation science has potential to assist in addressing the quadruple burden of disease which comprise of these colliding epidemics: maternal, newborn and child health; HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB); non-communicable diseases (e.g. cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes); and violence and injury.

The purpose of this project, explains Dr Shangase, is to capacitate academics and postgraduate students at the UFS and CUT as well as community stakeholders with knowledge and skills regarding the processes and factors involved in the successful integration of evidence-based public health improvement interventions into routine practice and policy.

“Implementation science offers a strategic, data-driven approach for South Africa, especially in addressing the country’s unique and complex healthcare challenges. These advantages stem from its focus on translating evidence-based interventions into real-world practice, addressing the quadruple burden of disease and helping overcome systemic obstacles to effective healthcare delivery.

“These advantages make implementation science a vital tool for improving health outcomes and achieving sustainable public health progress in South Africa.”

The next phase of this project is expected to be more innovative and takes place between February and March in 2025 with the inclusion of a multistakeholder team.

News Archive

SA universities are becoming the battlegrounds for political gain
2010-11-02

Prof. Kalie Strydom.

No worthwhile contribution can be made to higher education excellence if you do not understand and acknowledge the devastating, but unfortunately unavoidable role of party politics in the system and universities of higher education and training (HET).

This statement was made by Prof. Kalie Strydom during his valedictory lecture made on the Main Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein recently.

Prof. Strydom, who was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the UFS in 2010, presented a lecture on the theme: The Long Walk to Higher Education and Training Excellence: The Struggle of Comrades and Racists. He provided perspectives on politics in higher education and training (HET) and shared different examples explaining the meaning of excellence in HET in relation to politics.

“At the HET systems level I was fortunate to participate in the deliberations in the early nineties to prepare policy perspectives that could be used by the ANC in HET policy making after the 1994 elections.  At these deliberations one of the important issues discussed was the typical educational and training pyramid recognised in many countries, to establish and maintain successful education and training. The educational pyramid in successful countries was compared to the SA “inverted” pyramid that had already originated during apartheid for all races, but unfortunately exploded during the 16 years of democracy to a dangerous situation of 3 million out-of school and post-school youth with very few education and training opportunities,” he said.

In his lecture, Prof. Strydom answered questions like: Why could we as higher educationists not persuade the new democratically elected government to create a successful education and training pyramid with a strong intermediate college sector in the nineties?  What was the politics like in the early and late nineties about disallowing the acceptance of the successful pyramid of education and training?  Why do we only now in the latest DHET strategic planning 2010–2015 have this successful pyramid as a basis for policymaking and planning?

At an institutional level he explained the role of politics by referring to the Reitz incident at the UFS and the infamous Soudien report on racism in higher education in South Africa highlighting explosive racial situations in our universities and the country.  “To understand this situation we need to acknowledge that we are battling with complex biases influencing the racial situation,” he said.

“White and black, staff and students at our universities are constantly battling with the legacy of the past which is being used, abused and conveniently forgotten, as well as critical events that white and black experience every day of their lives, feeding polarisation of extreme views while eroding common ground.  Examples vary from the indoctrination and prejudice that is continued within most homes, churches and schools; mass media full of murder, rape, corruption; political parties skewing difficult issues for indiscrete political gain; to frustrating non-delivery in almost all spheres of life which frustrates and irritates everyone, all feeding racial stereo typing and prejudice,” said Prof. Strydom.

A South African philosopher, Prof. Willie Esterhuyse, recently used the metaphor of an “Elephant in our lounge” to describe the syndrome of racism that is part of the lives of white and black South Africans in very different ways. He indicated that all of us are aware of the elephant, but we choose not to talk about it, an attitude described by Ruth Frankenberg as ‘colour evasiveness’, which denies the nature and scope of the problem.

Constructs related to race are so contentious that most stakeholders and role-players are unwilling to confront the meanings that they assign to very prominent dimensions of their experience; neither does management at the institutions have enough staff (higher educationists?) with the competencies to interrogate these meanings, or generate shared meanings amongst staff and students (common ground).  A good example that could be compared with “the elephant in our lounge” remark is the recent paper of Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS on race categorisation in education and training.

According to Prof. Strydom, universities in South Africa are increasingly becoming the battlegrounds for political gain which creates a polarised atmosphere on campuses and crowds out the moderate middle ground, thereby subverting the role and function of the university as an institution within a specific context, interpreted globally and locally. 

Striving for excellence, mostly free from the negative influences of politics, in HET, from the point of view of the higher educationist, is that we should, through comparative literature review and research, re-conceptualise the university as an institution in a specific context.  This entails carefully considering environment and the positioning of the university leading to a specific institutional culture and recognising the fact that institutional cultures are complicated by many subcultures in academe (faculties) and student life (residences/new generations of commuter students).

Another way forward in striving for excellence, mostly free from politics, is to ensure that we understand the complexities of governing a university better.  D.W. Leslie (2003) mentions formidable tasks related to governance influenced by politics:

  • Balancing legitimacy and effectiveness.
  • Leading along two dimensions: getting work done and engaging people.
  • Differentiating between formal university structures and the functions of universities as they adapt and evolve.
  • Bridging the divergence between cultural and operational imperatives of the bureaucratic and professional sides of the university.

Prof. Strydom concluded by stating that it is possible to continue with an almost never ending list of important themes in HE studies adding perspectives on why it is so easy to misuse universities for politics instead of recognising our responsibility to carefully consider contributions to transformation in such an immensely complicated institution as the university within a higher education and training system. 

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (acting)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za
29 October 2010

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