Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Research activities pertaining to "scaling up" have significantly increased in Public and Global Health since the last decade. Scaling up is defined as a process implemented to increase the impact and sustainability of various population health interventions through different means of expansion, at the regional, national, or transnational level. The scaling up of Health Promotion Initiatives (HPI) presents additional challenges related to the inescapable evolution of interventions which this process generally implies. HPI mobilize resources and knowledge to achieve specific goals related to the determinants of health equity. The concept of "frame", which stems from the social sciences, allows giving an account of the changes within HPI at different times of the scaling up process, and shedding light on the origin of those changes. Frames refer to the salience of some ideas over others concerning problems and their solutions. Frame analysis can be conducted using texts, oral discourse or other means of communication, within a specific - local, professional, political, historical - context. As "pictures" taken at different moments, frames may prove helpful to monitor and explore the evolution of HPI. The objective of this communication is to demonstrate the relevance of the frame concept for the study of HPI scaling up. This will be discussed in relation to two main themes: 1) the nature of HPI, which are highly context-dependent and understood as complex action systems involving a plurality of actors coming from different sectors; and 2) scaling up as a process to increase the impact of interventions, thus potentially influencing "contextual relevance". The frames offer an interesting conceptual perspective to generate knowledge related to "how" elements and actions influence the scaling up process. Therefore, frame analysis offers precious insights, can serve as a facilitator of future collaborations, and ultimately may contribute to the success of scaling up.