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

The 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (ICASA) opened today, December 5, 2011, at the newly refurbished Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with a colorful and lively music and dance production by the Ethiopian National Theatre and Traditional Music Group and the Addis Ababa Youth & Children’s Theatre.UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé gave an impassioned welcome speech remembering the last 30 years of AIDS and the 24 million African lives lost to the epidemic.

Only one in twenty cancer patients in Africa receives needed chemotherapy. This is unacceptable. Much needs to be done, much can be done, and much must be done to close the cancer divide.

Samiha Badawy, a nurse at the Al Sabaeyya Hospital in Aswan, Eqypt, other nurses, health managers and Directorate of Health staff, are learning how to improve infection control and patient safety through a leadership development program called Improving the Performance of Nurses (IPN).

Lucia Afiki and Esther Goodson are living positively with HIV. They are counselors for family planning and HIV & AIDS at Salima District Hospital in Malawi, where they openly tell their clients that they are HIV-positive. “When we are open with them about our status,” says Afiki, “people say, ‘Come closer, we want to learn from you.’” Goodson adds: “They say, ‘What should I do to look as good as you?’” The counselors tell them to visit a doctor and join a support group. This is an approach that saves lives.

Blog post updated Dec. 27, 2011. In 2003, after dwindling funds, low staff morale, and accusations of patient neglect had eroded community confidence in Kiriaini Mission Hospital in Kenya, the Catholic Diocese of Murang’a decided to shut it down -- leaving locals to seek treatment at the distant provincial capital of Nyeri.Six months later five Franciscan nuns arrived from India to reopen the hospital. They hired new staff, renovated the dilapidated structures, and restored much needed services to the rural community.

Monday at the International AIDS Society conference in Rome, an expanded session featured information on the HPTN 052 study, the Partners PrEP Study, and the Centers for Disease Control’s TDF2 study presented in a joint session titled Treatment Is Prevention: The Proof Is Here, on Monday.

The theme of this year’s Global Health Council annual conference was Securing a Healthier Future in a Changing World. As populations are shifting, so are their health priorities. Increasing urbanization has led to more people living in and around cities, creating a series of problems that are new to public health professionals. Nutritional challenges, the need for improved water and sanitation infrastructure, and addressing the issue of unregulated health care providers are all problems facing governments, ministries, NGOs, donors, and populations.

It’s common sense that a mother who is on treatment for AIDS, pregnant, has a sick child, and is accompanying a sister debilitated by Tuberculosis should not have to visit four separate service delivery points to receive care. Integrated health services not only make the world a healthier place, but also decrease the burden on health systems.Integration is a comprehensive approach to service delivery. It is the transition from a vertical or horizontal approach to a diagonal, synergistic approach at all levels of a health system.

Last week, the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD) met in their 44th session to negotiate next steps on a resolution for fertility, reproductive health, and development.  The Commission helps inform the United Nations (UN) on their global efforts and provides crucial recommendations to form UN Resolutions.MSH, with over 80 partners and advocacy organizations, sent an open letter to the delegates of the 44th session.

Strong leadership, governance, and management are the cornerstones of successful global, national, and local efforts to save lives and achieve the  maximum impact from health investments. Yet effective leadership, management, and governance skills and practices too often are the vital missing elements in public, civil society and even private health organizations. Fortunately, these skills can be developed.

News from the HIV Capacity Building Partners Summit in Nairobi, KenyaOn the second day of the first ever Regional HIV Capacity Building Partners Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the key issues that continued to dominate the conversations in various sessions was sustainability.Many speakers noted that despite a mild increase in organizational capacity building efforts by donors, governments, and nongovernmental organizations in the Eastern and Southern Africa region, the documentation and dissemination of these efforts and their effects on HIV & AIDS programs and other health programs and s

For 40 years, MSH has promoted equal access to health care for women by strengthening health systems and building the capacity of women as leaders and managers, technical experts, clinicians, and community health workers. Management Sciences for Health celebrates International Women's Day, March 8, 2011. Meet the women who inspire us.

Afghanistan’s mountain ranges are beautiful to the eye. Rugged peaks and ridges are separated by valleys, carved out over the centuries by streams and rivers supporting the green web of vegetation along their banks.But many of the small villages that cling to the walls of these valleys are often cut off for months by heavy snow or the floods that follow the spring melt. The cold wet climate, together with smoke from household stoves, increases the risk of pneumonia, particularly among babies and children.

Part six of the blog series: Spotlight on Global Health Initiative Plus Countries Amid grave health statistics, the Global Health Initiative (GHI) brings hope of a healthier future in Mali.Mali is one of the ten poorest countries in the world, ranking 173 out of 175 countries on the 2007 Human Development index of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Prior to January 12, 2010, Management Sciences for Health’s Leadership, Management and Sustainability Program was working with Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population to build capacity in several areas:  family planning and reproductive health; commodity management and security; coordinating HIV & AIDS awareness and community mobilization activities; and leadership development.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Southern Sudan. For over five decades, Southern Sudan endured civil war, unrest, and several waves of forced displacement and refugees. The infrastructure of nearly every sector was mostly destroyed throughout the region.

Bangladesh, which is situated in a resource poor setting with a population of over 150 million, faces the major health challenge of a high maternal mortality rate. In the 1970s, the maternal mortality rate was 700 deaths per 100,000, and now it is still at 320 per 100,000. Although Bangladesh has made progress in reducing its infant mortality, much progress needs to be made to reach the Millennium Development Goals for maternal mortality. Bangladesh will need more than five years to achieve the goals.

Over 33 million people are currently living with HIV & AIDS throughout the world. Despite great strides in slowing the epidemic, there remains a stunning gap in prevention, care, and treatment efforts. This is especially true for most-at-risk-populations, which include commercial sex workers (CSWs) and their clients, injecting drug users (IDUs), men who have sex with men (MSM), and prisoners.

Blog post also appeared on Global Health Magazine. As the country with the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, outranked only by India, Nigeria loses one in every 18 women during child-birth.

The Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haíïti (SDSH) project Chief of Party, Agma Prins, and Dr. Serge Conille are in the Artibonite department to support the MSH response to the cholera outbreak. They continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Health and other international and local partners. MSH is working with Pure Water for the World to educate communities about hygiene and provide access to clean water through bio-sand filters.Additionally, MSH Sr. Technical Advisor, Dr.

On Saturday, October 23, a four-member group from the Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité (SDSH) project, led by MSH’s Dr.

Pick up any American newspaper these days, and all of the stories coming out of Haiti are negative: earthquake relief work is going slow, displaced people are still living in tented camps, men and women are still struggling to find work.  And while these facts can’t be disputed, there are many other stories that are being left untold.  Working in Haiti earlier this month, I encountered six women who are on the front lines of the battle against Haiti’s HIV & AIDS epidemic, who shared their stories with me.In the bustling, dense Delmas section of Port au Prince, these w

On June 17, 2010, I was honored to attend and speak at a ceremony where Management Sciences for Health officially handed over 35 tons of life saving essential drugs to the Republic of Congo (DRC) in Kinshasa. The ceremony was chaired by Dr. Victor Makwenge Kaput, the DRC’s Minister of Health.  These drugs represent the first half of an initial order of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies worth more than $ 1.5 million, and were made available through funding from USAID/DRC.

Next month in Vienna, Austria, thousands of activists, community workers, donors, health leaders, and government officials will gather for the VVIII International AIDS Conference.  This year’s theme is Rights here, right now: a mandate on the importance of health as a human right for all.  While it is easy to talk about health as a human right, it is much more difficult to deliver to diverse communities in some of the poorest countries around the world. Last year when President Obama announced his Global Health Initiative (GHI), he spoke about meeting the health needs of t

Just over five months ago, Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake that displaced more than 700,000 people.  Addressing the health needs of such a large population in a post-disaster situation is a complex challenge, one Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is supporting through its many programs including our Leadership, Management and Sustainability Program (LMS).

In fragile states, constraints on governments often prevent them from simultaneously building their stewardship role and immediately expanding service delivery. National and local governments must ultimately lead the process and work together with NGOs and the private sector to successfully strengthen their own health systems.