Health education

PES covers the period 9/80-5/83 and is based in part on an attached quarterly report by a contractor (XD-AAN-606-A). Considerable problems in recruiting MOH professional staff - due to lack of educationally qualified candidates willing to work at established government salary scales - and a 1.5 year delay in hiring a long-term advisor have placed the project a year behind schedule. In addition, budget restrictions prevented the MOH from purchasing needed office equipment. Since the staff was recruited and a long-term advisor brought aboard, however, implementation has progressed - the MOH has appointed 25 community-level personnel to work in health education; a curriculum been developed for the training of local health educators; plans for the first media campaign are underway; job descriptions and delegation of duties for central staff have been prepared; and a preliminary work plan for the first year"s activities has been submitted. Lessons learned are that it is easier to support an ongoing activity than to initiate a new concept from scratch, and that consideration should be given to the level of available professional staff who can be trained or retrained to conduct project activities. Action decisions are to: extend the project completion date by 1 year; revise the implementation plan; arrange long-term training for a participant; appoint a Division of Health Education (DHE) Deputy Director; and develop a training plan for DHE staff.