Leadership, Management & Governance: Blog Posts

Meet Hawa Coulibaly Kone, capacity building advisor and the representative on gender for the USAID-funded Keneya Jemu Kan (KJK) Project in Mali. Most recently, Hawa helped conduct a situational gender analysis of the KJK project and its partner organizations to assess the level of gender integration in the project design, implementation, and monitoring framework. The analysis found that KJK’s work with local partners across the country enabled the project to strengthen its institutional capacity in gender at the policy and programmatic levels and to respond to gender-related challenges.

More than 1,800 Peruvians have benefited from "¡Qué bien te veo Perú!" – an MSH-Peru program that offers free reading glasses and sunglasses to people with limited resources improve their quality of life, help them re-enter the labor market, and prevent eye diseases. In July and August 2018, MSH-Peru visited the Puno region to deliver spectacles in 16 communities in the province of Chucuito. The goal was to deliver 4,000 pairs of reading glasses to people over 40 who have trouble seeing up close.

Dr. Mark Dybul, MSH’s newest board member, has been a leader in global health policy as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria during the Obama administration and as head of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) during the Bush administration. Dybul is Professor of Medicine and Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Global Health and Quality at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Elimase Kamanga is a mother, a midwife for more than 15 years, and the Senior Technical Advisor for Maternal and Newborn Health for the USAID-funded Organized Network of Services for Everyone’s (ONSE) Health Activity, led by MSH. Chisomo Mdalla, ONSE’s Chief Communications and Knowledge Exchange Officer, talked with Kamanga about her work to improve the quality of care for mothers and newborns in Malawi. This interview was edited for length and clarity. Elimase, can you tell us about how you got to where you are today?

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when a microorganism becomes resistant to a drug that was originally effective for treating the infections it caused. It is one of the world’s most pressing global health threats and could erode progress made thus far in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, and many other infectious diseases. Management Sciences for Health’s (MSH) role in combatting AMR was recently featured in the peer-reviewed journal, Global Public Health.

What it takes for health systems to provide lifelong antiretrovirals Soon after her husband’s death in 1991, Bahati Shellinah tested positive for HIV, but antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were not yet available. In 2004 she fell ill, but, luckily, this time ARVs were available. Bahati visited the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) outside of Kampala, Uganda, and she began taking ARVs for the first time

Malaria in pregnant women contributes to several negative outcomes including miscarriage, premature birth, labor complications, low birth-weight babies, anemia, and maternal and newborn death. In Sierra Leone, malaria in pregnancy and child mortality rates are especially high: the disease contributes to nearly 40 percent of deaths of children under the age of five.

Strong health systems can protect the poor and promote equity. That was the resounding main message at the Fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, held in Vancouver, Canada, just a few weeks ago.

Strong, well-functioning health systems need strong leadership, management, and governance. Over the next couple of weeks, leading up to conversations that MSH is hosting at the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research next month in Vancouver, we will be sharing stories and insights about the role of leadership, management and governance in health systems strengthening. This is the second in a series of four blog posts on this topic. See part one.

HIP Brief: Leaders and Managers: Making Family Planning Programs WorkFor years, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and partners have championed and advocated that leadership and management be recognized as a high-impact practice (HIP) for family planning. Proven, promising, and emerging practices in family planning are codified in HIP briefs, publications developed by collaborating partners, with support from the US government, and rigorously reviewed by experts in family planning practice.

After two years of negotiations, 193 Member States of the United Nations reached agreement last month on the new sustainable development agenda that will be formerly adopted later this week at the 70th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City. The Member States agreed to 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) with a total of 169 targets. The SDGs will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that expire this year and will influence development priorities and funding for the next 15 years. About the New Development Agenda

The teenage years. Changes seem to happen overnight. Puberty. Your first crush. Fighting with a parent. Discovering your identity, your purpose, and your role in the community. A confusing and challenging, yet rewarding, coming of age... an emerging adult.

Are you interested in youth leadership for family planning and reproductive health?Join the Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project (@LMGforHealth) for the launch of the #AskLMG Twitter Q&A Series on Thursday, August 6, 2015, at 10 am ET.MSH staffer Sarah Lindsay (@shlindsa) will be answering questions about the importance of youth leadership development; the roles youth leaders play; and the LMG Project's support for young leaders improving family planning and reproductive health in their communities.Not on Twitter? No problem!

Update, July 30, 2015: Prior to 2002, the vast majority of health service delivery systems in Afghanistan were non-existent or informal. The Leadership, Management, and Governance (LMG)-Afghanistan project improved family planning, reproductive health, and maternal and child health using strategies to strengthen health leadership developed by Afghans, for Afghans. See the Journey to Restoration on Exposure The original post follows:

While at the World Federation of Public Health Associations meeting in India earlier this year, I met with a district health manager from Nigeria. He asked, What is the value of having a District Health Council? It takes a lot of time to work with them; so what is the return on that invested time? My Nigerian colleague is not the only one struggling to support the role of governing bodies. For years, governing bodies -– from district and provincial health councils to executive boards -– have been overlooked as valuable players in strengthening health systems.

Just a few months ago, the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, captured the world’s attention for unfortunate reasons: xenophobic attacks on foreign African nationals. This week, from June 9 to 12 in Durban, the same province is hosting the 7th South African AIDS conference, a gathering expected to bring together thousands of activists from within the country, the Southern African region and, indeed, the rest of the continent and the world, to “reflect, refocus, and renew” efforts in response to HIV and AIDS.

More than 10 years ago, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) developed its Leadership Development Program (LDP), a structured program for leadership development that ties together personal development and real life challenges, utilizing a team-based, action learning approach to improve health outcomes. This week, May 26 through May 28, all health leaders and managers interested in the LDP, and the new and improved LDP Plus (LDP+), are invited to participate in a free, three-day online seminar on MSH’s LeaderNet.

Are you strengthening youth leaders in a low or middle-income country? Take the Youth Leadership Program Survey now Young people are the next generation of leaders. How many times do we say this, or some version of it? Yet, do we examine the rhetoric behind it? What does it mean to strengthen youth leaders and what do programs that embody this mantra look like?

For five years, the USAID-funded, MSH-led Leadership, Management and Sustainability project in Haiti (LMS/Haiti) worked with the Ministry of Health and Population (MSPP) and local NGOs to ensure a steady supply of family planning commodities to nearly 300 facilities throughout the country amid bone-rattling roads, surging rivers, and rocky footpaths. Said Dr. Georges Dubuche, General Director of the MSPP, at the project’s closing ceremony April 14: It is with real pride and great emotion that I salute LMS/Haiti.

Good governance of a health system enables sound management of medicines, health information, human resources, and finances. Good governance enables health providers to deliver better health service performance which leads to better health outcomes.  In this series, hosted by The Leadership, Management and Governance (LMG) Project, our speakers will:  Discuss the factors that constrain governance effectiveness in service delivery organizations  Explore solutions to the governance challenges using real life examples

The strengthening of health systems in low and middle income countries is central to the global effort to promote economic and social development through universal health coverage, reduce mortality, and improve health and sustainability of health care over the next 15 to 25 years.

My name is Tiglu. I was born and raised in Bahir Dar. When I first learned that I am living with the [HIV] virus, my mind went blank. I was depressed. After that, I started taking antiretroviral treatment. Then they found TB in me... Meet Tiglu, a living example of how partnering for stronger health systems saves lives. In Ethiopia, about 790,000 people are living with HIV. Tiglu, a patient at the Bahir Dar Health Center in the Amhara Region of north-western Ethiopia, discovered he is HIV positive three years ago, and started on antiretroviral treatment (ART).

The unprecedented outbreak and spread of the Ebola virus in three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) continues to wreak havoc on the lives, economy, and already-strained health systems of the region. The outbreak is particularly high in Liberia with 2,413 people killed by the disease to date.

This post originally appeared on LeaderNet.org. Have you ever wondered what happens after a project activity ends? We are always deeply committed to local ownership and sustainability, yet, we rarely have the opportunity to do long term follow up or reflection. I recently had the extraordinary opportunity to discover for myself the long term impact of the Leadership Development Program (LDP) in Nepal. To sum it up in one word: Wow!

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and a consortium of partners lead the US Agency for International Development's (USAID's) Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project. These posts originally appeared on LMG's blog as two posts (Day 1 and Day 2). They also appeared on MSH's Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research conference blog (Day 1, Day 2).

Today, September 26, is World Contraception Day. The Family Planning 2020 (FP 2020) Initiative says the vision for the day "is a world where every pregnancy is wanted. Its mission is to improve the awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive health." We share part two of our interview with Dr. Fabio Castaño, MSH’s global technical lead of family planning (FP) and reproductive health, in celebration of World Contraception Day. Join the conversation on social media with hashtag #WCD2014. Read Choice: Part One

This post originally appeared on the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) blog. In my role as a capacity building advisor, I design a lot of learning programs. Time and again, I find myself asking: How can I present technical content in a way that will best enable my audience to apply new knowledge and skills in their work environment? Should I use a mobile phone app? What about some on-the-job-learning?

This post, cross-posted with permission from The Leadership, Managment, and Governance (LMG) project blog on LMGforHealth.org, is part of our Global Health Impact series on the 67th World Health Assembly in Geneva, May 18-24, 2014. MSH is co-hosting three side events focusing on the role of universal health coverage (May 20), chronic diseases (May 20), and governance for health (May 21) in the post-2015 framework. This year, six MSH representatives are attending WHA as part of the 60-plus-person Global Health Council (GHC) delegation.

Cross-posted from LMGforHealth.org, this blog post post is part of a series leading up to the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland from May 19–24, 2014. In conjunction with WHA, the Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project will host a side session with global health leaders titled, “Governance for Health: Priorities for Post-2015 and Beyond.” This series will offer insight on how good governance in the health system can result in stronger health impact as we move beyond the Millennium Development Goals.

Good governance is like a large elephant, Ahmed Adamu, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Youth Council, said. One person can touch the trunk, one the stomach, and one the tail, and they have had very different experiences with the elephant. Around the world, everyone has different experiences and different perceptions of good governance. With this anecdote, Adamu, a speaker at the plenary, “Achieving Good Governance and Accountability” at the 2014 World Conference on Youth, captures the challenges of defining good governance often cited in more academic terms. Though the concept of good governance is up for interpretation, there is consensus across countries, generations, and sectors that it is sorely needed. According to a consultation by Restless Development with young people in 12 countries , overall, governance is their most important issue that should be addressed in the post-2015 dialogue. And while good governance might be their most pressing concern, according to Subinay Nandy, Sri Lanka’s Resident Coordinator to the United Nations, it is young people themselves who are the most important tool international agencies can use to guarantee good governance.

This blog post is part of a series leading up to the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland from May 19 – 24, 2014. In conjunction with the WHA, the Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project will host a side session with global health leaders titled, “Governance for Health: Priorities for Post-2015 and Beyond”. This blog series will offer insight on how good governance in the health system can result in stronger health impact as we move beyond the Millennium Development Goals. This post originally appeared on the LMGforHealth Blog.

As a government we cannot work alone. However, it is important that those contributing to achieving the government’s vision of a healthy Kenya be guided by standards that encourage them to provide a certain level of quality that is acceptable and desirable. These were the words of Dr.

This post originally appeared on the LMGforHealth Blog. In discussions around the importance of country ownership of health-related activities and initiatives, both Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and the Leadership, Management, and Governance (LMG) Project are committed to making sure that the role of civil society is taken into consideration and promoted, in line with USAID Forward’s drive to engage and strengthen local capacity.

Effective leaders and institutions are the foundations of strong health institutions.

At the Devex Partnerships Forum, being held today in Nairobi, Kenya, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) urged the private sector to collaborate with health institutions to improve management, enable better service delivery, and lower the cost of healthcare in Kenya. With the healthcare service being devolved to counties in Kenya, a number of challenges exist, such as unequal distribution of human and material resources to health facilities. This strains the governance of the institutions as the few personnel are stretched, handling large clientele as well as administration.

Earlier this month, NASA confirmed that Voyager 1 reached the border of the solar system. This momentous occasion is a major milestone in space exploration. As we close World Contraception Day (WCD2013), September 26, there are many lessons we can learn from Voyager on our journey beyond WCD2013 toward access for voluntary family planning for all.

Over one hundred years ago on this date, (August 20, 1897), British scientist Sir Ronald Ross discovered that infected female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans. (Like any vector borne disease, the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium, needs a specific host: in this case, the mosquito. The female mosquito needs blood to nourish her eggs; the male just eats nectar.) Dr. Ross received the Nobel Prize for his discovery that year. Today, we mark the day, August 20, as “World Mosquito Day.” What’s all the buzz about?

Today, as we celebrate International Youth Day and the theme of “Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward,” we are reminded of difficult situations millions of young people experience every day—and of the power young people have to create change in their lives when they connect with their peers.

Hepatitis is a personal disease for me.  Some years ago, I spent two weeks leading training workshops for faculty at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica. The work and the participants were delightful, as we worked together to improve medicine prescribing practices. Every day I ate lunch at a local seafood restaurant, often joined by a colleague. One Friday, two weeks after returning home, I felt exhausted—so tired that I could not continue working. By Sunday I was orange as a pumpkin, unable to walk or keep food down.

By Anita Katharina Wagner & Dennis Ross-Degnan We were delighted to collaborate with our colleagues at Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and the Rockefeller Foundation, along with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the US Agency on International Development (USAID), on developing and implementing a first international dialogue dedicated to an important global issue: medicines as part of universal health coverage (UHC).  Here are the top 10 lessons we took away from the meeting:

Universal health coverage (UHC) is the ultimate accomplishment in health systems strengthening: UHC is achieved when a health system is strong enough to deliver high-quality products and services in a reliable, comprehensive and affordable way to its entire population. For the leaders who govern health systems, UHC is an ambitious and worthy goal. And as MSH President and CEO Jonathan Quick explains, success starts with their vision.

Cross-posted with permission from the LMGforHealth.org blog. I had the pleasure and privilege of moderating a stimulating discussion, hosted by the USAID-funded AIDSTAR-Two project entitled, "Organizational Capacity Development: How Do We Measure Impact?".

In a couple of days, thousands of decision-makers, leaders, advocates, health professionals, media, and more will gather to focus on our most valuable investment: women and girls.We are honored to be a Gold Sponsor and Advisory Group member of Women Deliver 2013.

In my 35 years working in international health, I've attended hundreds of conferences. Conferences are opportunities to exchange ideas and form connections. They’re often fascinating. But once in a while a conference itself can be a pivotal moment.

The Improving Performance of Nurses (IPN) project in Upper Egypt celebrated the first Arabic publication of Management Sciences for Health's (MSH)'s “Managers Who Lead” handbook with an event last November.

In Myanmar, 50 years of military dictatorship left behind a seriously underdeveloped health system, serving barely one in twenty of the country’s 60 million people. You might expect that the first minister of health under civilian rule would be despondent. But on my recent trip I found the opposite: Dr.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) staff presenting at the Global Maternal Health Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, January 15-17, 2013. (Photo credits: C. Lander & J. Briggs / MSH)RelatedSecond Global Maternal Health Conference: Will it Set Itself Apart? Off to an Excellent StartJoin MSH at the Global Maternal Health Conference 2013 

"Investing in Asia" (PDF), a new supplement published by MediaPlanet as part of its "Investing in Development" series, hit newsstands in select markets of USA Today on Friday, December 21, transporting readers to the Asian continent.MSH President and CEO Dr. Jonathan D. Quick was interviewed in the "Panel of Experts" section. Asked by MediaPlanet "Why is now the time to invest our time, energy, and abilities into the Asian continent?," Dr. Quick said:MSH is driven by the ancient Chinese Tao of Leadership, working shoulder-to-shoulder with our local colleagues for their success.

saynotoviolence.orgHuman rights, solidarity, awareness, strength, and resilience.

Last night, while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) visiting our programs, I attended a US election-eve gathering of mostly Congolese people in Kinshasa. The DRC is one of those “distant nations” President Obama was referring to in his early morning acceptance speech today, where people are, “risking their lives just for… the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.”Fragile, conflict-ridden nations, such as the DRC, struggle with leadership and governance.

Building local capacity is a pillar of the United States Agency for International Development's USAID Forward reforms. This post is one example of how USAID worked through Management Sciences for Health (MSH) to build, nurture, and support a local development stakeholder that is still thriving today. The story was written by global health writer John Donnelly, and first appeared in MSH’s book Go to the People in 2011.

On this historic World Population Day --- the first with the world’s population at seven billion and growing --- we call your attention to a crucial summit in London happening today, and to the ongoing importance of supporting access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health.The London SummitOver one hundred high-level decision-makers are convening at The London Summit on Family Planning in hopes of securing a better future for women and girls globally.

Good governance in health care matters at all levels of the health system—from communities to health facilities to governments. When a community HIV & AIDS association in Zanzibar grew from 40 members to more than 1,000, it needed better governance. When women in Senegal raised concerns about lack of privacy and poor security at a district hospital, it needed better governance.

Ezekiel Kyasesa is a village health team coordinator and supervisor in Kasese District, western Uganda. He supports 11 villages, 90 parishes, and 2 health centers.Ezekiel has been working in community health for a few years, but only on a small scale. A year ago, he was selected to attend a training provided by STRIDES for Family Health to learn new family planning, child survival, and reproductive health information and the skills to become a village health team member.

The Kasese district in western Uganda is nestled between two national parks. Located hours from the capital city, Kampala, the region attracts tourists to view gorillas and mountain birds.During my recent trip to Uganda, I met with Dr. Yusuf Baseka, the district health officer of Kasese, who described the health challenges his district faces, and his hopes for the future.Although the national parks are beautiful and bring a much needed economic boost to the area, they also offer a challenge, Dr.

 All project health indicators for the second phase of the USAID-funded Sudan Health Transformation Project (SHTP II), led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, have shown improved performance over the past two years.On the ground, this means that more people are being immunized against diseases, communities are receiving education on HIV, and lives are being improved.While other indicators improved by leaps and bounds, one indicator consistently lagged during the first year of the project: births attended

Abubakar Muhammed Kurfi presenting at ICASA, Dec. 7, 2011. Credit: MSH.The Program to Build Leadership and Accountability in Nigeria's Health System (PLAN-Health) -- led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in conjunction with eight local and international partners -- helped the Nigerian National TB and Leprosy Control Program (NTBLCP) in carry out a capacity assessment.

Zakia, a nurse in Afghanistan, has become a leader in her health center. After participating in an MSH leadership development program, Zakia led a team of nurses in increasing awareness about family planning, resulting in a doubling of the use of contraceptive pills and an eight-fold increase in the number of condoms distributed in two years. “Everyone here no longer thinks of problems as obstacles in our way, but challenges we must face,” Zakia says.

We know how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. But without intervention nearly 40 percent of mothers with HIV/AIDS in developing countries will transmit the virus to their newborns.

The future is indeed bright for public health in Nigeria, judging from what Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, the Honorable Minister of State for Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, said at the Africare House in Washington, D.C. on September 21. The event, Innovative Approaches to Expanding Health Care Services, was co-sponsored by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), fhi360, the Anadach Group, and hosted by Africare.

Earlier this year, USAID supported the launch of the Leading High-Performing Healthcare Organizations program (LeHHO) for senior health leaders in Kenya. Offered at Nairobi’s Strathmore Business School, the program is the result of a successful partnership between Strathmore and USAID’s Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) project in Kenya.

 In the kidney dialysis unit of Kom Ombo District Hospital in Upper Egypt, dedicated nurses prepare for the monthly treatment of a regular patient. They have assured the proper functioning of medical equipment, stocked the dialysis room with necessary supplies, and prepared staff for the dialysis process. However, the patient is missing.Meanwhile, the patient---a young man named Kasim---stands alone outside the hospital entrance. Kasim has impaired mobility resulting from an amputated leg and relies on a prosthetic limb or the help of relatives to accomplish daily activities.

Over the next couple of months, as MSH celebrates it's 40th anniversary, reporter John Donnelly and photographer Dominic Chavez will be traveling to several countries to report on MSH’s work in the field. The stories will go into a book due out in the fall on MSH’s 40 years in global health. This blog entry is a post from the road, to give a flavor of their experiences with MSH staff.(Part 1 of this story: Introducing Triage in Hospitals, and a Baby in a Coma) SALIMA, Malawi – A child enters a hospital in a coma. Health workers resuscitate him. The child regains his health.

 Kenya’s new constitution, promulgated on August 4, 2010, mandates significant transformations in the health sector. Hospital reforms are a key part of these transformations. For MSH’s Leadership, Management and Sustainability Program in Kenya (LMS/Kenya), the opportunity to work closely with health sector partners, including the Ministry of Medical Services, to support the hospital reform agenda is an exciting and rewarding experience.On Monday, June 6, the Permanent Secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Medical Services, Ms.

This is a guest post from Olive Mtema, Policy Advisor, from the Community Based Family Planning and HIV & AIDS Services project in Malawi. Olive is an employee of the Futures Group. On March 12, 2011, Muslim Leaders gathered in Lilongwe, Malawi for a conference on Reaffirming Muslims' Positions on Family Planning and HIV & AIDS Issues.

In March 2011, the CSIS Global Health Policy Center asked bloggers around the world: What should the key priority of the upcoming UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases be and why? We had a number of great submissions.  Dr. Jonathan D. Quick was one of our four finalists.  Read his entry below and look out in the days and weeks ahead for other finalist's blogs and another blog contest on NCDs. This was originally posted on smartglobalhealth.org.The most common NCDs are diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and chronic lung diseases.

(This blog post was originally posted on Global Health Council's Global Health Magazine blog.)How do we set a gold standard for monitoring and evaluating capacity building?Last week I attended the inaugural HIV Capacity Building Partners Summit in Nairobi from March 16-18, 2011.

Terekeka, a growing county and town just 60 miles north of Juba, translates as “The Forgotten” in the local dialect.  Just five years ago, this area was awash in violence, poised close to the frontlines of a civil war which resulted in the death and displacement of millions. Villagers and returnees began repopulating the area after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, which heavily increased demand for health services.

Simi Grewal is the Program Coordinator for Health Systems Strengthening and Results Management at MSH. She worked as a fellow in Egypt from January 16-February 5.Although it has been more than three weeks since my return from Egypt, I am still reflecting on how I saw conflict in the community foster change at various levels. At 4 am on February 2, 2011 I sat in my hotel room in Aswan, Egypt watching a live feed of Tahrir Square in Cairo as shots cracked in the dark night. The sound of gunfire is unmistakable and its meaning inevitably ominous.

Introductionby Joan Bragar Mansour, ED.D, leadership development specialist at MSH.Dr. Morsi Mansour is an Egyptian surgeon and Leadership Development Specialist for MSH who teaches leadership to health professionals and develops leadership facilitators around the world. He was in Tahrir Square for two weeks during the uprising in Egypt and shares his experience below.In Egypt, there has been a Leadership Development Program since 2002.

Ryan Cherlin, USAID, wrote this blog after a recent visit to Haiti.

In Aswan, Egypt’s sunniest southern city located about one and a half hours by plane from Cairo, the Nile is at its most striking.

This blog post was co-written with Morsi Mansour.

There have been a collection of high-profile and well attended mobile health (mHealth) “summits” held around the world in the past few years, including last month’s second annual mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. (headlined by Bill Gates and Ted Turner), but the really interesting conversations are happening on the African continent.

Danielle Brown is the Program Coordinator of the Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) project in Haiti. She worked with our teams in Haiti from October 24 – November 14.  It’s two days after Tropical Storm Tomas hit Haiti and our caravan of Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Project/Haiti Landcruisers filled with MSH employees hits its first challenge on the seven-hour stretch of road from Port-au-Prince to the North West region of the country---a wide river to cross.

Fragile states such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Liberia, and Southern Sudan have among the worst health statistics – especially for women and children.  For political, economic, security and other reasons they can be extremely challenging work environments.

The Health Minister’s Conference for member countries of The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA HC) was opened by the Minister of Health, Zimbabwe in Harare on October 25.

Blog post originally appeared on Global Health Magazine. Six years ago the Malawi health system was on the verge of collapse due to severe shortages of health workers. Every year the College of Medicine would train 20 doctors and every year, half of them would leave the country. Nurses were overwhelmed by the demand for services.Ratios of doctor and nurses to population were the lowest of all countries in Southern Africa. HIV & AIDS was on the rise and without more health staff, the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) would remain just a dream.

Originally appeared in GLOBAL HEALTH magazine.Men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a disproportionate share of the HIV/AIDS burden in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but data on and services for this population are woefully inadequate. With a better understanding of this marginalized community's needs, donors and implementers can help support effective policies and programs for MSM infected and affected by HIV.In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as in many parts of the world, the HIV epidemic among MSM is underreported and under”acknowledged.

The Group of Eight (G-8), holding their annual summit last weekend in Muskoka,Canada, announced a Canadian-led Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Under-Five Child Health (Muskoka Initiative). The Group of 20 (G-20) summit held immediately after in Toronto, resulted in no additional commitments to maternal and child health. MSH believes the G-20 missed an opportunity to support global health when the group did not endorse the G-8’s maternal and child health initiative announced the day before.

“Songs brought by foreigners do not last long at the dance.”  So goes a Kenyan proverb that supports the concept that countries should own their development. The development community knows this, but we aren’t yet making it happen on a broad scale.

Last week at the Women Deliver Conference in Washington, DC, Melinda Gates announced that the Gates Foundation is committing $1.5 Billion in new grant money for maternal health. “Women and children have moved up on the global agenda, and I’m here to tell you that’s where they are going to stay,” said Gates.In most developing countries, women and girls are the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the population because of entrenched inequalities.