AID cooperative agreement no. DPE-5992-A-00-0050-00 with the Center for Human Services for an applied research in Child Survival Services Program

The Center for Human Services (CHS) will implement the project"s three components: (1) methodology refinement, (2) data base development, and (3) application of QA methodologies. In the area of methodology refinement, CHS will conduct field research and analyses comparing alternative approaches to monitoring a given element of child health care or to dealing with a given deficiency. Findings will be used to develop an empirically based set of guidelines for implementing QA under widely varying circumstances. These guidelines will cover services for diarrheal disease control, pneumonia case management, growth monitoring and promotion, presumptive treatment of malaria, and at least one service outside the CS category. Immunization services will receive less emphasis, given the high quality of the work done in the predecessor project. Secondly, a quality of care database will be developed to facilitate sharing of successful QA strategies. The database will contain detailed information about common quality of care problems in at least six CS programs, and about how these problems were dealt with. The database will also address program factors affecting service delivery, e.g., the performance of supervisors, service provider competency and job knowledge, adequacy of the management information system, etc. The third and final component will be to establish systematic QA strategies as ongoing elements in nine country health programs, with a predominant focus on CS in seven of these. An additional nine programs will develop the technical capacity to implement a QA strategy. CHS will provide a resident advisor (who may be a host country national) in each country implementing a QA program, and will provide short- and medium-term TA in the nine countries developing their QA capacities. CHS will also support formal in-country workshops on QA, addressing both policy and operational level audiences.