 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Nahed G. Matta, MD, MPH, Office of Health and Population, USAID Mission Egypt, Plot 1/A Off El-Laselki St., New Maadi, Cairo, Egypt, 202-516-4659, nmatta@usaid.gov
As an essential element in its efforts to improve the quality and utilization of maternal and child health services in Upper Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), with USAID funding and technical assistance from John Snow Inc., has decentralized its planning and monitoring activities. Egypt's top-down management system has been replaced with a new structure focused on the district level that is better informed and more responsive to local needs.
District Safe Motherhood Committees (SMCs) now manage the provision of maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health services in local districts. These District SMCs have close formal and informal links to their communities through collaboration with SMCs in 'anchor' health care facilities and with a number of local Community Health Committees (CHCs). The CHCs carry out local needs assessments and formulate community action plans that feed into the district health plan. District SMCs also link upward to Governorate SMCs which are empowered through greatly increased spending authority. Parallel to this structure is an enhanced computerized hea1th information system and a new quality assurance monitoring system that gives feedback on performance. Governorate and District SMCs have been trained in management and planning, and in data interpretation and how to best use MOHP regulations and resources to improve their services. Because they are more motivated and responsive to requests and needs from their constituencies, the new SMCs have solved problems and cooperated to improve local services in ways that would not have been possible before.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community Health Planning, International MCH
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.