Quarter 2, Year 1 Quarterly Report and Semi-Annual Performance Reporting

The program is implemented by Abt Associates, Inc. in partnership with Salephera Consulting, Ltd. and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under Cooperative Agreement AID-612-A-11-00002. The program's purpose is to provide technical assistance to Malawi's Ministry of Health (MOH) in support of policies, management, leadership, and fiscal responsibility, in a collaborative effort to strengthen Malawi's healthcare system. The program focuses on six results: increased and coordinated advocacy for evidence-based policies, strengthened strategic and management capacity of the MOH, improved zonal supervision structures, improved leadership and management of human resources, improved decentralized health services, and strengthened health financing mechanisms. During Quarter 2 of Year 1, the program team continued with program start-up activities and initiated program implementation. The team met with the Agreement Officer Representatives (AORs) to discuss work plan and performance monitoring plan (PMP) revisions, and a revised work plan was submitted and fully approved on April 2nd. The program team also opened their program office in Lilongwe city center, co-located with the Malawi-based staff for the USAID-funded Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) project. Partial work plan approval enabled the program team to initiate activity implementation under all six result areas. Three critical activities have been fully initiated: feasibility assessment and design of performance-based incentives (PBI), development of a capacity building plan in support of the Malawi Health Sector Strategic Plan 2011-2016, and support for the Malawi HRH Strategic Plan update/review. The program team collaborated with the USAID global Health Systems 20/20 Project to conduct a PBI feasibility assessment, which involved conducting interviews with national level stakeholders and visiting health facilities in the two SSD-I target districts of Dowa and Mangochi. The resulting draft PBI and report will help inform the way forward for both SSDI-Systems and SSDI-Service programs. The program team also assisted the MOH to draft a capacity building plan, which will help guide Global Fund expenditures on capacity building for Ministry staff at the central level. The program team met with the MOH Senior management officials, program managers, and other stakeholders to ensure that the plan reflects MOH priorities and there is buy-in and alignment with the health sector strategic plan. The SSDI-Systems team submitted a draft capacity building plan to the MOH and the USAID mission during the last week of April, 2012. The program team also assisted the MOH to draft Terms of Reference (TORs) with timelines for the review and update of the HRH Strategic Plan, identified roles and responsibilities for each key stakeholder, and agreed that SSDI-Systems would lead the activity from Lilongwe with additional support from ECSA. The program's progress is tracked against the Table 2 Matrix, which outlines the planned activities for the next quarter. The program team has made significant progress in implementing the work plan and PMP, and has initiated activities under all six result areas. The program's success will depend on the continued support of the MOH, USAID, and other stakeholders, as well as the effective implementation of the work plan and PMP.