Leadership, Management and Governance Project in West Africa: Program Year II, Quarter II Progress Report

The project achieves this goal through workplace action-oriented training for health leaders and managers in key health system building blocks, and by developing the stewardship capacity of senior leaders through specialized training with long-term mentoring. The project has three main objectives: Objective 1, Improved leadership, management, and governance practices; Objective 2, Strengthened organizational M&E capacity and regional health information system (HIS) management and implementation oversight; and Objective 3, Strengthened capacity in internal and external communication and advocacy. The project's workplan for Program Year 2 focuses on supporting the reorganization and organizational development of WAHO human resources, operationalizing WAHO's health information systems policy, and implementing the advocacy and communication strategy developed under the West Africa Leadership and Management Strengthening Program. During the January 1 to March 31, 2015, reporting period, the LMG/West Africa team coordinated with the WAHO General Directorate and developed an implementation plan for essential and priority activities both for the current and next quarters. The team also prepared a contingency plan to reduce project delays, which included two medium-term technical assistance missions to more closely monitor project activities and accelerate implementation. Key activities carried out during this quarter include leading coaching sessions with WAHO Leadership Development Program Plus (LDP+) improvement teams, launching an application process and selecting five new WAHO State Focal Points to participate in a LDP+, holding a planning workshop for the first annual Good Practices Forum in Health, hiring a human resources consultant, and continuing to request governance profiles from remaining WAHO member states. The team also hired two senior consultants to implement the regional HIS policy and strategy, assisted WAHO professional officers to revise and finalize the targets in the WAHO advocacy and communication plans, and held the Governance Academy for WAHO leaders. The project's Principal Technical Advisor discussed the contingency plan with the activity manager at the USAID/West Africa Regional Health Office (RHO), who agreed to the missions. The selected technical assistance provider carried out the first mission from December 3-20, 2014, and the second mission from January 2 to March 6, 2015. During each mission, the staff member provided management and technical support to the LMG/West Africa Senior Technical Advisor and advanced key activities in the project's workplan. The project's progress is reflected in the achievements listed in Table 1, which summarizes the achievements in the reporting period by project objective and output. The table highlights the progress made towards the project's objectives, including the completion of coaching sessions, the launch of the application process for WAHO State Focal Points, and the hiring of human resources and senior consultants. The project's work continues to focus on strengthening the organizational capacity of WAHO and improving leadership, management, and governance practices in the region.