Programme science: a route to effective coverage and population-level impact for HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention.

Improvements in context-specific programming are essential to address HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection epidemics globally. A programme science approach emphasises the need for context-specific evidence and knowledge, generated on an ongoing basis, to inform timely and appropriate programmatic decisions. We aim to accelerate and improve the use of embedded research, inquiry, and learning to optimise population-level impact of public health programmes and to introduce an effective programme coverage framework as one tool to facilitate this goal. The framework was developed in partnership with public health experts in HIV and sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections through several workshops and meetings. The framework is a practice-based tool that centres on the use of data from iterative cycles of programme-embedded research and learning, as well as routine programme monitoring, to refine the strategy and implementation of a programme. This programme science approach aims to reduce programme coverage gaps, to optimise impact at the population level, and to achieve effective coverage. This framework should facilitate the generation of programme-embedded research and learning agendas to inform resource allocation, optimise population-level impact, and achieve equitable and effective programme coverage.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests GPG is an employee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and GAD was an employee of the Gates Foundation until June 1, 2022. The opinions in this Position Paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Gates Foundation. HW received support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Northwest London and NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. SOA is an employee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings and conclusions in this Position Paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. JFB is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health. LMM, MLB, and PJG declare no competing interests.
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