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Do governance and management capacity building interventions make a difference: Empirical evidence from Zambia
Methods: A sample of 12 DMOs was selected from a population of 44 DMOs (27%) in the five project intervention provinces. Management capacity consists of four components (governance, financial management, human resources management and planning), 18 indicators and 71 indicator measures. Using a five-point Likert-type rating scale, scores for each of the indicator measures were generated through a survey administered before and 2.5 years after the project interventions. Hypotheses were tested using paired-sample t-tests at the α = .05 level of significance.
Findings: Two of the three hypotheses were supported: (a) following the training program, management capacity scores improved significantly (p=.000), with an average improvement of 43 percent, (b) following the mentoring program, capacity scores improved significantly (p=.01) with an average improvement of 57 percent, and (c) components that supplemented the training program with a mentoring program did not result in significantly higher management capacity scores.
Implications: The study’s findings support: scaling up the capacity building interventions to the remaining provinces, introducing a peer review system and mentoring program between district officials and staff in the health facilities, contextualizing the capacity building methodology used and applying it in other sectors and countries, and, governance is a variable that can be improved.
Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadershipConduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Program planning
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Describe the participatory and evidence-based methodology for identifying governance and management capacity needs that informed the design of the capacity building program.
Critique the research design used to assess the impact of capacity building interventions on strengthening governance and management.
Describe and critique the research findings.
Discuss the policy and program implications emerging from the findings.
Keyword(s): Practice-Based Research, International Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have a PhD, MPH and MPIA. I am the Longacre Endowed Professor of Business and Economics (emeritus) at Eastern Mennonite University and have over 25 years experience in health systems strengthening, capacity building, health finance,research, etc., in over a dozen low-income countries, including three years in Zambia where this research is based. I am a published author of a book on development ethics as well as numerous peer-reviewed publications.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.