AID grant no. PDC-0276-G-SS-6126-00 to the African Medical and Research Foundation for a program to provide improved primary health care to rural areas

To upgrade health management within Ministries of Health, regional and district health teams, NGO"s, and its own health projects, AMREF will establish a Health Management and Planning Unit (HMPU) at its headquarters in Nairobi. The HMPU will address management problems in such areas as: administrative procedures, personnel incentives, conflict resolution, staff orientation and development, and budget authority. The unit will take a three-pronged approach consisting of operational research, TA, and training. The HMPU will also pay special attention to improving the delivery of immunization, oral rehydration therapy, and family planning. Secondly, AMREF, working in close collaboration in Ministries of Health, will expand its distance teaching services to rural health workers by: (1) adding six correspondence courses (family planning, maternal/child health, medicine, environmental health, obstetrics/gynecology, and rural surgery); (2) helping to organize district-level clinical practice sessions; (3) producing radio programs to supplement correspondence courses; (4) increasing the distribution of the quarterly self-study publication Afya to include all health centers and dispensaries in East Africa; and (4) providing TA in distance education to Ministries of Health and NGO"s.