PERLSS hosts one-year anniversary meeting, receives additional grant and welcomes new partner

On their one-year anniversary, members of the Partners for Evidence-driven Rapid Learning in Social Systems (PERLSS) network will meet in Addis Addaba (Ethiopia) from 16-18 December to review achievements over the past year, share lessons learned, and review the strategy for the next two years of the program. These discussions will build on key insights about project coordination and administration from the PERLSS meeting held in September 2019 in Johannesburg.

PERLSS is excited to announce that the Hewlett Foundation is providing an additional research grant of US $300,000. A portion of the funding will be used for convening the PERLSS one-year anniversary meeting and the remaining will be used for topping up the existing Opportunity Fund. PERLSS – which includes peers in 14 countries and is already supported by the Hewlett Foundation and Canada’s International Development Research Centre – is a one-of-a-kind international effort that helps support the achievement of the non-health SDGs using best evidence, citizen values and stakeholder insights.

In addition to the new grant, PERLSS is excited to welcome a new partner: the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CCHSRD) at the University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, representing Trinidad and Tobago and the larger Caribbean region, with Donald Simeon as the project lead. Their centre has a Caribbean-wide mandate and is uniquely well positioned to support the piloting and iterative improvements to PERLSS approaches. In addition, they already have established connections to key (non-health) partners in their own country and across the Caribbean.

The existing team members (country partners and funders) have warmly welcomed the new group and look forward to working together, starting with the one-year anniversary meeting in Addis Ababa.