ExpandNet History

During the period 2001-2004 the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research (WHO) organized a series of three meetings under the title "From Pilot Projects to Policies and Programs" at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Conference Center. The purpose was to learn more about the factors that both facilitate and hinder the scaling-up process.

The Bellagio meetings grew out of more than a decade of work on the WHO-sponsored Strategic Approach to Strengthening Reproductive Health Policies and Programmes, a methodology that countries can use to identify and prioritize their needs with regard to reproductive health technologies and services; test appropriate interventions to address these priority needs; and then scale up these tested interventions to a regional or national level. Experiences from scaling up primary health care in Ghana and China's quality of care in family planning reform contributed additional lessons.

During the second Bellagio meeting, participants proposed the formation of the ExpandNet network and subsequently a declaration with the network's mission and objectives and plans for initial activities were developed. An initial secretariat was established jointly at the University of Michigan and WHO. In 2004 ExpandNet received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to begin activities.