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One of the classes I had taken over the summer was Introduction to Global Healthcare Delivery which was an immersion course into the practice of healthcare across the world particularly with respect to the roles of NGO's, donors and international agencies.
The class being case-based enabled us to critically study several programs and learn practical issues relating to each program and the reasons for their great successes or otherwise.
The Rwanda case highlighted the bold and great strides of the Government of Rwanda in their health sector as a whole, with a leverage obtained from HIV funds.
Today I was fortunate to listen and discuss with Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, the Exec. Sec of the Rwanda HIV commission! It was awesome!
I learnt several things about what makes their health system tick, a few of which I outline below.
1. Political Will: We've over-flogged this. Even the Govt of Nigeria say it! But go to Rwanda and see what political will is.
It means allowing people do their work as best as they can without interfering. It means making healthcare of the people a priority and making ploicies that promote this.
In her words, she says her organization works with the efficiency comparable with that of private organizations, within the linits of the law.
2. Harmonization: One lovely thing they did while starting was to take charge of the various NGO's in their country and taking responsiblity for the health of their people. They coordinated the operations of the various NGOs and asked those who couldnt harmonize with them to leave!
She says nobody (the NGOs) can love her people more than she does! That thrilled me. It really does.
3. The framework of any health program must align with the constitution, the sectoral law and then be put into a protocol. Otherwise, there will be chaos!
4. CSOs are a very potent and important stakeholder. Carry them along. Transparency and community participation is impt. Not just the ones talked about by our first ladies. The ordinary people who are affected must have a sense of ownership of the program.
5. Avoid the jargon of "best practices" as what is best today, becomes surpassed tomorrow. Keep searching for better ways of doing your projects. Be innovative.
6. Integration. Ensure all facilities delivering HIV work are integrated into a common program.
7. Geographic equity important in program distribution else that region will become your achilles heel. Does that remind anyone of a region of Nigeria?
8. When you collect money for projects, do what you've been paid to do.
9. They also have a beautifully designed and integrated drug procurement system.
I will describe it a bit. Using past records and projections, the estimate is made of drugs needed for a given period. This number is shared amongst the various NGOs involved in drug purchase to procure. No NGO can bring any drug into the country without passing it through the pool. From this 'virtual pool' the various health centres draw what they need. Through a computerized system and intermittent checks, records of the various centres are checked for accurate reporting and drug level is monitored. The various centres also have access to info about drug level and utilization rate in their region... Beautiful design.
Waoh!.Hope you were not too bored with my long gist, I was simply inspired. Nigeria has a lot to learn from this.
The class being case-based enabled us to critically study several programs and learn practical issues relating to each program and the reasons for their great successes or otherwise.
The Rwanda case highlighted the bold and great strides of the Government of Rwanda in their health sector as a whole, with a leverage obtained from HIV funds.
Today I was fortunate to listen and discuss with Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, the Exec. Sec of the Rwanda HIV commission! It was awesome!
I learnt several things about what makes their health system tick, a few of which I outline below.
1. Political Will: We've over-flogged this. Even the Govt of Nigeria say it! But go to Rwanda and see what political will is.
It means allowing people do their work as best as they can without interfering. It means making healthcare of the people a priority and making ploicies that promote this.
In her words, she says her organization works with the efficiency comparable with that of private organizations, within the linits of the law.
2. Harmonization: One lovely thing they did while starting was to take charge of the various NGO's in their country and taking responsiblity for the health of their people. They coordinated the operations of the various NGOs and asked those who couldnt harmonize with them to leave!
She says nobody (the NGOs) can love her people more than she does! That thrilled me. It really does.
3. The framework of any health program must align with the constitution, the sectoral law and then be put into a protocol. Otherwise, there will be chaos!
4. CSOs are a very potent and important stakeholder. Carry them along. Transparency and community participation is impt. Not just the ones talked about by our first ladies. The ordinary people who are affected must have a sense of ownership of the program.
5. Avoid the jargon of "best practices" as what is best today, becomes surpassed tomorrow. Keep searching for better ways of doing your projects. Be innovative.
6. Integration. Ensure all facilities delivering HIV work are integrated into a common program.
7. Geographic equity important in program distribution else that region will become your achilles heel. Does that remind anyone of a region of Nigeria?
8. When you collect money for projects, do what you've been paid to do.
9. They also have a beautifully designed and integrated drug procurement system.
I will describe it a bit. Using past records and projections, the estimate is made of drugs needed for a given period. This number is shared amongst the various NGOs involved in drug purchase to procure. No NGO can bring any drug into the country without passing it through the pool. From this 'virtual pool' the various health centres draw what they need. Through a computerized system and intermittent checks, records of the various centres are checked for accurate reporting and drug level is monitored. The various centres also have access to info about drug level and utilization rate in their region... Beautiful design.
Waoh!.Hope you were not too bored with my long gist, I was simply inspired. Nigeria has a lot to learn from this.
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