EQUIST’s step-wise approach is based on the following theory of change.
- Identify and prioritise the targeted population through a careful situation analysis considering the country’s demographics, health and nutrition outcomes and the coverage of essential interventions;
- Prioritise the diseases, health and nutrition issues that are prevailing in a country and most specifically among a targeted population, to assess severity, scale and scope of their deprivation;
- Prioritise interventions that will address the major diseases, health and nutrition issues of the target population;
- Prioritise key bottlenecks hampering the effective coverage of these selected interventions and aggravating inequities between the least and most disadvantaged; set up the realistic and feasible frontiers that could be reached by overcoming these bottlenecks and reducing inequities;
- Prioritise drivers or causes of the bottlenecks resulting in inequity between the least and most disadvantaged
- Select strategies to address the causes of the bottlenecks and model a scenario to reduce inequity between the various groups
- Assess expected impacts and costs of the strategies, especially in terms of reducing the inequity between the least and most disadvantaged
