Evidence and innovation

By using scientific evidence and harnessing innovation, countries can strengthen their health systems and respond to their populations' needs. For this reason, the Operational Framework for Primary Health Care that follows the World Health Assembly resolution WHA 72.2 on PHC (2019) identified PHC-oriented research as a key lever to unlock progress towards universal health coverage.  

The WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care supports PHC evidence and innovation, including measuring PHC progress. These efforts have a sharp focus on people left behind and to ensure technical coherence and conceptual clarity across PHC-relevant global goods.  

PHC-oriented evidence and innovation are generated through the following activity areas: 

• synthesizing evidence for the PHC global report series; 


• conducting implementation and operational research for PHC implementation solutions; 


• facilitating cross-regional learning and knowledge management on PHC, including hosting the PHC Country Case Study Compendium; 


• strengthening PHC leadership through the coordination of a global capacity building course with the WHO Academy;


• collaborating with the WHO Innovation Hub and other programmes for the scale-up of programmatic innovations by leveraging the PHC approach;


• providing technical assistance to countries to support PHC investment plans.