The involvement of regional/provincial and national policy-makers throughout the research process is a crucial factor for the success of the project because attaining the expected strategic impact of the research depends critically on them taking up the research recommendations. The following methods will be used to identify key policy-makers, consult with them and communicate the final project conclusions and recommendations to them:

A stakeholder analysis will be conducted at the beginning of the project and involve the following:

• A project workshop in Project Month 2.
• Key stakeholders identified will be invited to attend joint research planning workshops between both study countries, including the situation analysis and study baseline design workshop in Project Month 4 (see WP 2).
• A workshop to discuss the findings of the situation analysis and discuss possible revisions to existing schemes in Project Month 12 (see WP 3).
• A workshop to present and discuss the preliminary findings from the evaluation of the revised schemes in Project Month 42 (see WP 6).
• A workshop presenting the final study findings in Project Month 47.

Policy briefs will be developed and aimed at policy-makers and managers at different levels (i.e. regional and national). Consultations with primary stakeholders will occur, and they will be provided with the full project findings in due course. The primary project stakeholders are the target population, providers of health care and providers of health insurance in the study sites. These groups will be consulted with and informed of the findings in the following ways:

• Representatives of primary stakeholder groups such as farmers’ associations, and grassroots women’s groups will be invited to join the initial project start-up workshop.
• Further consultation will be carried out with these groups prior to the redesign of health insurance schemes through qualitative data collection as part of the situation analysis.
• The preliminary findings from the evaluations of the pilot schemes will be disseminated to representatives of these stakeholder groups through a workshop in month x to enable them to comment on the findings and make appropriate recommendations
• The final study findings will be communicated to these stakeholders through the development and dissemination of appropriate materials such as radio broadcast slots and newsletters.
• Consulting with and disseminating the project findings to international policy-makers and researchers.
• In order to inform the design and implementation of more sustainable, equity-oriented health insurance schemes internationally, it will be important to ensure that the study methodology will produce information on the specific questions and indicators of concern to international policy-makers. The project will involve representatives of international policy-makers and their advisers on the technical advisory committee, which will meet twice a year to discuss plans and review results.

The study results will be disseminated more widely through a number of mechanisms, including:

• Submission of academic papers for publication in national, regional and international high impact peer-reviewed journals.
• The production of policy briefings for international policy-makers.
• The presentation of papers at relevant regional and international conferences attended by the health research and policy making community.
• Submission of the final research report to the EU.
• Web-based dissemination of project findings through a project website and submission of the project findings to research dissemination websites such as ID21.
• Presentation to community members, academia, district and regional health teams and other relevant stakeholders.