Tua Tāpapa | Our History

The Cook Islands Ministries of Education and Health partnered with the Liggins Institute within the pilot phase of the Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project (PSHLP). This project examined the potential to culturally adapt the Liggins Institute’s Healthy Start to Life Education for Adolescents Program to support priority health and education development goals across the Cook Islands and Tonga.

Transforming a project from pilot to established and sustainable practice at a national level requires the strategic development of a scale-up phase. Phase II facilitated this process for the Cook Islands and has built the capacity required to enable PSHLP to transform from pilot to sustainable practice, enabling benefits realised in the pilot to continue and evolve nationally through Ora‘anga Tūmanava.

From its inception to today, the PSHLP timeline highlights key milestones, achievements, and transformative moments that have shaped our journey from pilot to practice. Learn more about our voyage from Pilot to Sustainability here.

Partnership Development Phase:

• 2012: Partnership formation; engagement with MFAT and project proposal development, co-written by all partners.
• A pre-feasibility study report was prepared by the project leaders to reflect the evidence collected through consultation processes undertaken within the three partner countries.

Pilot Phase:

• 2013-2017: Implementation of the Pilot Phase in the Cook Islands and Tonga, focusing on stakeholder engagement, political and community commitment, intervention design, and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation.
• 2018: Scale-up plans were confirmed with partners; funding for a Cook Islands national scale-up plan was established.

Scale-Up Phase:

• 2019: Initiation of Phase Two, transitioning from pilot to full-scale implementation, involving the Cook Islands Ministry of Health and Education, with a focus on leadership, policy, and Pa Enua development.
• 2020-2022: The continuation of the Scale-Up faced significant disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting progress from March 2020 to April 2022.
• 2023-2024: Transition of leadership and project management from the University of Auckland to the Cook Islands Ministries in preparation for sustainable practice.

Health & Education System Practice:

• 2024-2035: Embedding sustainable practices with a focus on implementation, evaluation, and ongoing development. This phase emphasises team-based management, data visibility and use, and enhanced technical expertise.

Pacific Science for Health Literacy Project Phase II Framework

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation; Pā Enua Outer Islands of the Cook Islands; Refinement is inclusive of model and resources; Institutionalization is defined as when a pilot project is successfully diffused into a community and integrated into the long-term function of the host agency (Indig et al., 2018) Adapted from: Supply Chains for Community Case Management Project, 2014.

 Indig, D., Lee, K., Grunseit, A., Milat, A., & Bauman, A. (2017). Pathways for scaling up public health interventions. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 68. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4572-5 

Supply Chains for Community Case Management Project (2014). From Pilot to Practice: Lessons on scale, institutioalization and sustainability from the (in-progress) journey of the SC4CCM Project, JSI Research and Training Institute, USA. https://sc4ccm.jsi.com/emerging-lessons/sustainability/index.html