Latest Ruth Simmons Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I would like to make it possible for many women and men in Latin America to win the lottery and receive the type of reproductive health services they so urgently need.

  Ruth Simmons

  Latin, Winning, Men

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• It is not enough to give money for demonstration projects. From the very beginning plans should be made for the scaling-up of successful innovations.

  Ruth Simmons

  Successful, Giving, Innovation

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• In fact it is essential that we strengthen efforts to learn from each other, and stop considering public health in the third world and in the U.S. as separate intellectual and practical endeavors.

  Ruth Simmons

  Effort, Intellectual, World

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• If you want to scale-up, the first thing you have to do is to expand your own team.

  Ruth Simmons

  Team, Want, Firsts

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• Major changes become possible if you work in a participatory manner, listen to local people, diagnose what the problems are, provide training and identify where there are opportunities for mobilizing local resources to take action.

  Ruth Simmons

  Opportunity, People, Training

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• International "experts" from technical assistance agencies or universities can make important contributions, but they certainly don't have all the answers. When ownership is local and national, and various stakeholders work together, program innovations have a greater chance to take root and survive.

  Ruth Simmons

  Agency, Roots, Innovation

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• If policy makers and program managers participate in an interdisciplinary assessment team, make informal visits to local families and have in-depth conversations with local providers and health authorities, the real needs and complex challenges of organizing good reproductive health services become apparent.

  Ruth Simmons

  Real, Team, Assessment

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• Strategies for research and policy development must simultaneously address people's needs, the capacity of programs to provide good quality of care, and the range of technological options available.

  Ruth Simmons

  People, Quality, Needs

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• A focus on people's health and well-being must be the core of family planning research and policy. This may seem self-evident, but the realities of program implementation in third world countries has often shown that the health and well-being of individuals is not a priority.

  Ruth Simmons

  Country, Reality, Self

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• Bureaucratic systems are not set up to be what we refer to as human service organizations. They were established to collect revenue and maintain law and order and they used a law and order approach in providing family planning services.

  Ruth Simmons

  Order, Law, Organization

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• Because in traditional Hindu culture menstruation is associated with a variety of social taboos, prolonged menstrual bleeding produced conflicts within families. The whole idea of fertility regulation was still extremely new in this setting and many husbands and other family members were angry when they found out that women had decided on their own to use the method and had gone to the clinic in secret.

  Ruth Simmons

  Husband, Ideas, Social Taboos

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• When we conducted focus group interviews in the first municipality in Brazil before initiating the pilot project, a woman commented: Getting an appointment in the public sector municipal health services is like "winning the lottery." I would like to make it possible for many women and men in Latin America to win the lottery and receive the type of reproductive health services they so urgently need.

  Ruth Simmons

  Latin, Winning, Men

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• We hope to organize team residencies and a conference bringing together professionals from Latin America and from other groups around the world who are also focusing on this issue. We want to bring them together so we can learn from each other, and then widely publicize our conclusions.

  Ruth Simmons

  Latin, Team, America

  "An Interview with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grantee Ruth Simmons". The Journal of International Institute Interview, quod.lib.umich.edu. 2001.

• I would like to see policy makers and international donor agencies realize that it is not enough to give money for demonstration projects. From the very beginning plans should be made for the scaling-up of successful innovations.

  Ruth Simmons

  Successful, Agency, Giving

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• My colleagues from the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education are working on participatory public health initiatives in Michigan, and there is much that we can learn from each other. In fact it is essential that we strengthen efforts to learn from each other, and stop considering public health in the third world and in the U.S. as separate intellectual and practical endeavors.

  Ruth Simmons

  Health Education, Effort, Intellectual

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• We are trying to discover where this approach could have the greatest possibility of large-scale impact. We have to choose wisely and see where there is greatest interest and need.

  Ruth Simmons

  Impact, Trying, Needs

  "An Interview with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grantee Ruth Simmons". The Journal of International Institute Interview, quod.lib.umich.edu. 2001.

• If we succeed in learning more about how to expand program innovations from pilot projects so that they have broader program impact, this should be very relevant for public health initiatives in Michigan and elsewhere in the US.

  Ruth Simmons

  Impact, Innovation, Pilots

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• One of the things we have learned in the first year is that if you want to scale-up, the first thing you have to do is to expand your own team.

  Ruth Simmons

  Team, Years, Firsts

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• We felt that the Gates Foundation looked at our track record and our publications and decided that "this is persuasive; this needs to be done. Let's see what they can do."

  Ruth Simmons

  Track, Done, Records

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• Our practical purpose is to facilitate expansion of service innovations on a larger scale to improve access to, and the quality of reproductive health care. We are very grateful to have received support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to continue our work.

  Ruth Simmons

  Grateful, Support, Innovation

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• A longer time perspective is needed because we face a daunting task both in an intellectual and practical sense.

  Ruth Simmons

  Perspective, Intellectual, Faces

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• In the late 60s, 70s and possibly early 80s, social scientists were interested in researching the diffusion of innovation and studying the link between applied research and policy and program development. Recently there has been less interest in these issues and we feel that this interest must be rekindled.

  Ruth Simmons

  Issues, Innovation, Development

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• We wanted to see how access to care can be expanded and service quality can be improved when one uses a participatory approach to program development. We showed that major changes become possible if you work in a participatory manner, listen to local people, diagnose what the problems are, provide training and identify where there are opportunities for mobilizing local resources to take action. In time leaders from other municipalities expressed interest in replication and the project succeeded in expanding innovations to three other areas.

  Ruth Simmons

  Opportunity, People, Leader

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• There are hundreds, even thousands of remarkable pilot or experimental projects in all fields - in agriculture, health, education. But where do these pilots take us? Do they lead to change on a broader scale? If not, how can we ensure that they have broader impact?

  Ruth Simmons

  Agriculture, Impact, Health Education

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

• If instead policy makers and program managers participate in an interdisciplinary assessment team, make informal visits to local families and have in-depth conversations with local providers and health authorities, the real needs and complex challenges of organizing good reproductive health services become apparent.The first country that implemented this participatory program of assessment, research and policy development was Brazil. I was one of the outsiders who provided support to the initiative.

  Ruth Simmons

  Country, Real, Team

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu