It's very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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