HEALTH MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT

The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) will implement the project with the help of long- and short-term U.S. consultants. The creation of a new organizational unit, the Directorate of Planification (DOP), will strengthen MOPH"s management capacity by improving methods of integrated planning and problem solving, as well as by improving coordination within the central/provincial health system. U.S. long-term graduate degree and seminar training will be provided to DOP members in the areas of management information systems and operations research. DOP"s data processing and evaluation skills will be upgraded by establishing, respectively, an integrated file access system and a generalized report writing system. The following MOPH administrative subsystems will also be improved with USAID technical assistance: 1) Statistics and Informatics -- by improving information collecting, processing and communicating; 2) Personnel -- by more timely execution of essential personnel actions; 3) Budgeting and Accounting -- by determining actual program costs leading to better allocation and control of resources; 4) Pharmacy -- by improving procurement, storage and distribution of essential pharmaceuticals; and 5) Material -- by a more efficient system for managing material supplies. Short-term and in-service training will be provided to those who head and operate the administrative subsystems in such areas as program design, implementation, and evaluation; work planning, scheduling, and coordination; and in project-specific technical areas such as PERT scheduling methods. Training of project personnel will include both indigenous and participant training. Approximately 35,000 MOPH employees will benefit from this project.