Building on five years of success, in the third phase of the SSLN, we are supporting 16 African countries to strengthen their HIV prevention programmes through shared learning and action.

We collaborated with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on a significant longitudinal household cohort study in South Africa. This work was central to strengthening the country's system for monitoring vaccine-preventable illnesses and informing national immunisation policy.

For too long, crucial decisions about early childhood development (ECD) in South Africa lacked authoritative data, limiting effective policy-making and strategic investment. The Thrive by Five (TB5) Index, launched in 2021, emerged to fill this critical gap. Now the largest nationally representative survey of preschool child development in South Africa, the Index has directly informed government strategies, including the National Planning Commission’s 2024 2024 ECD Advisory Document and the Department of Basic Education’s 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes.

Our work focuses on reviewing relevant literature on the health system and community health programmes, as well as a review of health financing.

We undertook a mixed-methods approach to understand the scale and nature of this issue. We conducted a comprehensive literature review and undertook key informant interviews to explore the reasons why people disengaged from HIV and TB treatment. This work uncovered important information about policy gaps, administrative hurdles, and stigma-related barriers. 

Global evidence suggests that integrating HIV services is essential for sustaining the HIV response, ending AIDS by 2030, and advancing universal health coverage.

Genesis Analytics has partnered with the Gates Foundation to explore the value of introducing and/or scaling up Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance (WES) as part of broader disease surveillance strategies.

Building on a 2021 review, Genesis was contracted by the United Nations Population Fund to assess the integration of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) rights and services into the ongoing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) expansion efforts in the Asia Pacific region.

The Ifakara Innovation Hub, a catalyst for regional innovation and entrepreneurship, was the subject of an end-term evaluation conducted by Genesis Analytics at the behest of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tanzania.

Our approach involved a detailed examination of the complex, socio-behavioural factors that shaped the decision-making framework around seeking immunisation. Working with our consortium partner, Final Mile, we employed a human-centred design lens to thoroughly understand and iteratively test solutions to these gender-specific barriers. 

The core challenge was to determine if the GC7 FR-GM processes resulted in high-quality grants that genuinely aligned with national health priorities and supported the overarching GF strategy for 2023-2028. We needed to understand if the current procedures were fit for purpose and where they could be simplified or rationalised.

Genesis Analytics is supporting the Africa Leadership Meeting – Investing in Health, which is tasked with developing tools and mobilising African governments to increase domestic investments in health.

As a partner in the South to South Learning Network’s (SSLN) insight 2 implementation (i2i) project, Genesis is key to efforts to use the best available evidence to inform and improve HIV prevention policies and practices in 15 African countries.

Genesis Analytics was contracted by the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) to act as one of the regional coordinating partners on a study to estimate and analyse the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) that TB patients in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia incur when accessing health services.

Genesis partnered with the World Bank to develop a policy note for Eswatini’s Ministry of Health (MoH) that provides a roadmap for harnessing the power of digital health innovations (DHIs) to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.

As countries work to reach the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, planning and action is urgently needed for sustaining HIV response gains beyond 2030. New guidance from UNAIDS in 2024 encourages all HIV burdened countries to develop HIV Response Sustainability Roadmaps with appropriate indicators to measure progress.

Genesis was asked by the South African National Department of Health to assist its HIV/AIDS Conditional Grant Unit, which allocates R30 billion of funding annually to provincial health departments, to identify and realise the efficiency savings and optimisation required to achieve and maintain control of the HIV epidemic.

Genesis Analytics conducted a comprehensive study to assess the drivers of immunisation at different levels of government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Genesis was contracted by the South African Presidency and Georgetown University to conduct a cost assessment of a proposed nursing training and exchange programme between Germany and South Africa.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia and Pacific Regional Office (APRO) contracted Genesis to organise a four-day in-person workshop to enhance participants’ capacity to engage in strategic policy dialogues on financing for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).

The Gates Foundation has awarded Genesis a grant to provide technical support to the National Department of Health as part of the foundation’s $2.5-million, three-year tuberculosis (TB) delivery strategy for South Africa.

Genesis has been contracted by the Gates Foundation and is working with the Population Council to synthesise and contextualise evidence to guide countries in managing and implementing comprehensive HIV prevention responses for AGYW.

Genesis Analytics partnered with the United Nations Population Fund to develop the regional Sexual and Reproductive Health and RightscTechnical Assistance (TA) Hub for the 2gether 4 SRHR programme.

Wellcome contracted Genesis Analytics to provide a landscape mapping and analysis of important South African actors in health research, funding, interventions and advocacy to inform Wellcome’s South African policy strategy.

Genesis Analytics, through funding from the Gates Foundation, aims to build the capacity of the Department of Health to fast-track the effective implementation of the TB Recovery Plan to ensure an effective transition to the new National TB Programme Strategic Plan 2023-2028.

The Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel commissioned Genesis to retroactively assess the financial performance and value for money achieved by Cameroon’s national malaria programme over the period 2015-2020.

Genesis was contracted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to update and quality assure the backend database that supports its Adolescents and Youth Dashboard.

Genesis was asked by Business Unity South Africa to independently re-assess the impact of the 2016 Liquor Amendment Bill post-Covid and weigh the potential social and public health benefits against the potential economic costs.

Genesis Analytics partnered with PATH to explore the acceptability, programmatic fit and usability of microarray patches (MAPs) as an alternative delivery mechanism for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs) in South Africa.

Genesis was contracted by the Gates Foundation to consolidate the implementation challenges and promising practices of AGYW HIV prevention programmes in South Africa.

Genesis was contracted by the Gates Foundation to assist in providing support to the assessment of PEPFAR’s DREAMS and the Global Fund’s mentoring component of their adolescent girls and young women’s HIV prevention programmes.

Genesis has been contracted by the Gates Foundation to synthesise and contextualise evidence to guide countries in managing and implementing comprehensive HIV prevention responses for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).

Genesis Analytics, on behalf of the Gates Foundation, conducted a qualitative landscape analysis of the policy and implementation environment for community-based services in South Africa to inform the sustainable planning and implementation of their investments.

Genesis partnered with Digital Pathways at Oxford University to support the Government of Lesotho to develop a national digital transformation strategy for the country.

Despite progress in rolling out the Covid-19 vaccination programme in South Africa, there are still millions of vulnerable individuals who have not yet been vaccinated. There is a need to implement targeted interventions, per population group and geography, to increase national vaccination coverage.

Despite initial enthusiasm for the Covid-19 vaccine, vaccine hesitancy remains a significant obstacle in South Africa. This has left millions of vulnerable South Africans unvaccinated and threatens to create a situation where there are continuing waves of Covid infections.

Genesis Analytics partnered with a private foundation, and key stakeholders in the public, private and NGO sectors in Ghana to develop a transformational vision for the use of digital technologies, especially in the north of the country, which suffers serious backlogs in terms of healthcare services and health indicators.

Genesis has been contracted by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to conduct the second round of client exit interviews (CEIs) for family planning clients in 17 countries in Africa and Asia through the WISH2 project.

The Gates Foundation needed to identify health-financing challenges driving poor system performance and the entry points in addressing the challenges.

We apply a suite of diagnostic and analytical approaches in health financing assessment to determine the adequacy, efficiency, cost-effectiveness and equity of financing for different disease and programmatic areas.

Genesis conducted the mid-term strategic evaluation of the Developing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Tanzania programme, jointly funded by Fondation Botnar and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Genesis Analytics has been contracted to support the International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) through a developmental evaluation (DE). Unlike the traditional formative or summative evaluations, DEs facilitate real-time or close-time feedback loops, facilitating a continuous learning cycle.

To assess the magnitude of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health and HIV expenditure, UNAIDS carried out fiscal-space analyses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jamaica, and Lesotho.

Genesis collaborated with UNICEF and the Ugandan government to develop a comprehensive investment case for the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan II (UNAP II) for 2019 to 2025.

Genesis conducted family-planning performance assessment for the Gates Foundation to identify key improvement areas in family-planning financing for three countries and created a tool that supports alignment between the foundation’s health and family-planning financing strategies.

Genesis was contracted by UNAIDS to lead a transition readiness assessment (TRA) in Sri Lanka and develop an implementable sustainability roadmap to mitigate for transition risks and vulnerabilities.

In partnership with Oxford Policy Management (UK) and The Firm (Oman), Genesis Analytics carried out a comprehensive fiscal space analysis for Oman, projecting expenditures for health and education to 2040.

Genesis Analytics partnered with UNICEF and the Government in Madagascar to evaluate whether an exemption in the value-added tax on soap would increase access to soap and achieve better WASH-related outcomes, and drive tax policy decision-making based on the recommendations derived from the evaluation.

The Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) in South Africa has faced persistent challenges over the years, marked by inadequate and inequitable resource allocation and limited capacity to address the diverse health needs of young people across different school phases and regions.

Genesis Analytics was contracted by the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) Secretariat and the Global Fund to support stakeholders in developing a national sustainability framework, assessments and action plans to guide the sustainability planning process for HIV and TB programmes in South Africa.

MenConnect is an innovative approach to supporting HIV treatment initiation and adherence among men living with HIV in South Africa. Genesis was responsible for crafting behaviourally informed messages that are timed to the treatment journey milestones and tailored per psychographic segment.

Genesis Analytics was contracted by the Gates Foundation to develop a tool that could help countries to define the performance of their HIV programmes against a global standardised set of programmatic components.

Genesis was appointed by the Gates Foundation to work with key country stakeholders to consolidate and synthesise research findings and review the implementation of best practices of adolescent girls and young women HIV prevention programmes in South Africa.

Genesis was appointed by the  Gates Foundation to provide technical assistance to the Mpumalanga Provincial AIDS Council in costing the interventions in their Implementation Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (PIP) and forecasting the financial resource needs over the five-year period.

Genesis Analytics was contracted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to document the extent to which research with male sexual partners (MSPs) had been undertaken as part of the DREAMS programme, the methods used, and the use of results to inform programming in 10 high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Genesis has been contracted by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to conduct a cross-sectional survey of healthcare utilisation and seroprevalence during the Covid-19 pandemic in three provinces in South Africa.

Genesis supported the Cipla Foundation in an innovative solution to expand the footprint of Centralised Chronic Medicines Dispensing Distribution (CCMDD) locations as a solution for chronic patients to pick up their medicines from decentralised locations.

At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in South Africa, Genesis Analytics developed a useful tool for looking at and understanding the impact of the epidemic on the healthcare system.

The Solidarity Fund was set up in March 2020 to fund a range of initiatives that addressed the Covid-19 crisis in South Africa. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) funded Genesis Analytics to provide extensive and wide-ranging technical support for the fund to ensure that the investments made by the fund had the greatest possible impact.

Genesis, in partnership with the University of Manitoba, is implementing the South to South HIV Prevention Learning Network (SSLN), which supports peer learning in a network structure to improve HIV prevention programming in 15 African countries.

Genesis Analytics was contracted by the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) to act as one of the regional coordinating partners on a study to estimate and analyse the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) that TB patients in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia incur when accessing health services.

Genesis assisted in the competitive assessment required for the merger filing between AfroCentric/DENIS.

Genesis was retained by the Public-Private Growth Initiative (PPGI) to demystify and increase adherence to regulations on how to re-open the economy safely after lockdown and to remain open using insights from behavioural economics.

Genesis has been awarded a contract to undertake a number of learning activities that will improve countries’ abilities to accurately cost their HIV programmes, using national data systems, and interpret existing cost data, thereby enabling more effective planning, budgeting and ongoing decision-making.

A public-private convening body asked Genesis for advisory work to support Presidential decision-making in South Africa on how to unlock the economy responsibly – which parts, which sectors, how to balance lives with livelihoods?

Genesis Analytics was appointed with a consortium of partners to provide technical support for a social impact bond to address HIV and pregnancy in school-going adolescent girls in South Africa.

Merck contracted Genesis to develop programme key performance indicators (KPIs) and an M&E framework to efficiently monitor correct tablet distribution and use at country and community levels of its anti-bilharzia drug Praziquantel (PZQ). Merck has provided nearly one billion PZQ tablets to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which then distributes these to countries for mass drug administration in endemic areas.

Genesis was contracted to assist Population Services International (PSI) and Society for Family Health (SFH) to develop PSI’s South Africa strategy.

Medical male circumcision (MMC) is a low-cost, effective HIV prevention method, reducing female-to-male transmission by about 60%. But getting men to circumcise requires more than making services available. Many men do not follow through by booking for an MMC procedure, despite clearly indicating an intention to do so.

Genesis Analytics was commissioned by PPO Serve to help improve medication adherence among HIV-positive patients enrolled on the GP Care Cell (GPCC) programme. The programme offers free HIV treatment through a network of private GPs.

Genesis Analytics and the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) have been commissioned by the Gates Foundation to provide technical assistance to the South African Department of Health (DOH) to support the delivery of a key HIV prevention programme - the national Medical Male Circumcision (MMC) Programme.

Genesis undertook the evaluation of the Phase 1 implementation of the government’s policy of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa. The main aim was to assess whether the NHI Phase 1 interventions had achieved their objective of health system strengthening in primary health care facilities.

Genesis was awarded three-year contract from The Gates Foundation to provide technical assistance to the South African national medical male circumcision (MMC) programme to build resilient local systems that successfully plan, effectively manage and efficiently execute the programme at scale, and transition MMC toward sustainability in South Africa.

Genesis Analytics as part of the Oxford Policy Management-led consortium is tasked with managing all operations of the Technical Support Mechanism (TSM) in the East and Southern Africa region. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) established the project to support the provision of high-quality technical assistance in East and Southern Africa (ESA), Asia-Pacific (AP), and West and Central Africa (WCA).

Genesis calculated the incremental cost of implementing and scaling-up community-based interventions in southern Angola to reduce the spread of malaria to neighbouring countries.

Genesis Analytics supported the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to investigate the understanding, accessibility and acceptability of providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to boys and girls attending school in South Africa.

Genesis was contracted to conduct a rapid impact assessment of the Choice for Change (C4C) family planning programme in Kenya targeting adolescent girls. Choice for Change is a CIFF-funded initiative, though implemented through Marie Stopes Kenya (MSK), IPAS and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Genesis, in partnership with the Centre for Communication Impact, was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the South African National Department of Health in developing a communications strategy to address HIV, TB and the associated risk factors and comorbidities.

The Gauteng Office of the Premier’s Planning Division contracted Genesis Analytics to determine the health and financial effects of non-communicable diseases on Gauteng’s health system for 2017-2030 and to recommend policies and best practices to address the growing burden in Gauteng.

Genesis was contracted to evaluate the Department of Home Affairs’ birth registration programme. Despite various interventions, only 694 000 out of approximately 1.1-million births are registered per year in South Africa.

Genesis Analytics was part of a consortium that developed a communication strategy targeting tuberculosis and related illnesses affecting mineworkers, ex-mineworkers, their families and communities in Southern Africa.

The National Economic and Development Labour Council (Nedlac) commissioned Genesis Analytics to conduct an urgent independent study on the likely economic, health and social impacts of some of the amendments proposed in the Liquor Amendment Bill, 2017.

South Africans (18-34 years) who are exposed to the Testa Boy campaign are 50% more likely to agree that men who test for HIV are strong and responsible, according to a study done by Genesis Analytics for the Centre for Communication Impact.

Genesis Analytics was contracted to evaluate a private healthcare practice’s baseline cost structures and practice operations, determine whether global fees for disease management appropriately recover their costs, and to assist with pricing strategy and evaluation.

Genesis was contracted to do a baseline and follow-up evaluation of the Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) campaign “Are you drinking yourself sick?”, which was aimed at reducing sugary-drinks consumption and promoting support for the sugar tax. 

Genesis was employed by the International Partnership for Microbicides to test eight potential brand names and then the packaging for a monthly vaginal ring that helps to prevent new HIV infections in women.

UNAIDS contracted Genesis to support the meeting of 19 South African municipalities to implement its 90-90-90 project that assists countries to control the HIV epidemic by setting ambitious targets to get people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and ensure they are virally suppressed.

Genesis has worked extensively with the Pharmacy Stakeholders Forum of South Africa (PSF) in its protracted litigation with the Department of Health regarding price regulation of the dispensing fee for medicines sold through pharmacies.  The central question was whether the dispensing fees prescribed by the Department of Health were sufficient to provide a reasonable revenue stream to community pharmacies so as ensure the viability of the businesses.

Genesis was asked by Soul City to evaluate their Soul Buddyz HIV-prevention campaign in schools from 2004. We used social media, as well as direct approaches, to track down Soul Buddyz members for the study.

The HIV prevention field is changing rapidly as treatment becomes widely available and as new prevention technologies reach the market. The Gates Foundation commits significant funding to healthcare and HIV, and needs to decide whether its strategic focus areas are appropriate in this changing landscape.

Whether corporate ownership of healthcare providers can improve efficiency and lower prices is a hotly contested topic in the healthcare sector. In this case an individual who operated a large franchise of optometrists put this topic on trial. The person lodged a competition law complaint that the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) was involved in a restrictive horizontal practice by not permitting corporate ownership. Genesis was retained by the HPCSA to provide an expert economic view of whether this was the case.

Genesis was commissioned to provide expert economic advice and a report for the South African Private Practitioners’ Forum (SAPPF) in support of its response to a request for comments on the proposed guideline tariffs for medical practitioners and dentists made by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

Genesis was retained by Liberty and Spectramed to provide a competitive assessment of the proposed amalgamation between the two companies for filing with Competition Commission.

Genesis was appointed to conduct a financial and economic impact assessment of a logistics fee proposed by Government, which would be applicable to wholesalers and distributors of medicines and related substances. 

Genesis was retained by the parties involved to provide a competitive assessment of the proposed merger of Bonitas and Pro Sano for filing with Competition Commission. The project team’s input was critical in helping them to demonstrate that the proposed amalgamation would have a minimal impact on competition in the medical schemes industry and supported the pro-competitive rationale for the proposed move. The parties obtained merger approval from the Commission promptly. This mitigated solvency concerns for Pro Sano. 

Genesis was retained by the parties involved to provide a competitive assessment of the proposed merger of Nimas and Resolution Health for filing with the Competition Commission. 

Genesis was commissioned to quantify the potential damages in a counter-claim by a medical products distribution firm against a large supplier of medical products.  

Genesis was commissioned by the Competition Commission of South Africa to provide expert advice on a potential inquiry into the private healthcare industry, which was prompted by a concern over the increases in costs in the private sector.

There are many HIV communication campaigns running in South Africa and many have overlapping objectives. However, funders need to know whether these campaigns are working, in which areas they are working, and what to continue with and what to stop or change.

Genesis was retained by a small healthcare products company, Bestcare, to assess the damages incurred following the termination of a supply contract by a large multinational supplier, 3M. The project team used before and after quantification techniques to determine the change in revenue that resulted from the termination of the contract for both private hospital supply contracts and public tenders. Through a careful financial analysis of the Bestcare’s cost structure, the team was also able to accurately determine potential cost reductions in order to quantify lost profits.  

Genesis was commissioned to provide expert economic analysis and testimony in a proposed hostile takeover of generics producer, Cipla Medpro, by Adcock Ingram, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in South Africa.

Genesis played a central role in the debate in modelling the fiscal implications of the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) policy when it assisted one of the largest healthcare service providers in South Africa in calculating the likely spill over effects for the labour market 

Genesis was appointed to assess the potential impact of a proposal by the Department of Health to regulate tariff negotiations between hospitals and medical schemes, as well as to permit the use of National Health Reference Price List (NHRPL) prices as a default in the event of no agreement being reached.

Genesis was commissioned by HASA and SAMA to provide expert advice on the new National Health Reference Price List (NHRPL) and its implications for the sustainability of the healthcare sector.

Genesis was retained to provide an expert economic report for the Self-Medication Association of South Africa (SMASA), which formed the basis of its successful application for the exclusion of over-the-counter medicines from price regulation.