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!

The benefits of good health governance are far-reaching: Leaders who govern facilitate the work of health managers. Health managers facilitate the work of health service providers. - Management Sciences for Health On May 11-13, 2015, the USAID-funded Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project, led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), conducted an online seminar on LeaderNet titled Unleash the Power of Good Governance.

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.

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!

Experience the 69th UN General Assembly (UNGA) and Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting as we take you through some of the key events in photos, videos, and tweets. More than a dozen Management Sciences for Health (MSH) representatives led or participated in UNGA and CGI activities in New York City, New York, last week.

Cross-posted with permission from mHealthKnowledge.org.

The Building Local Capacity for Delivery of HIV Services in Southern Africa (BLC) Project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), provided a grant to The Luke Commission (TLC) to deliver safe medical male circumcision to men and boys in Swaziland. The BLC Project also provides organizational capacity building support to TLC. A version of this post originally appeared on the Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Regional Exchange (SHARE) blog.

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.

The World Conference on Youth (WCY2014) is bringing together over 1,500 youth delegates, ages 18 to 29, from May 6-10, 2014, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for thematic policy roundtables to create an outcome document ("Colombo Action Plan") that will state the position of mainstreaming youth in the post-2015 development agenda.

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.

This post originally appeared on the LMGforHealth.org Blog. USAID's Leadership, Management and Governance (LMG) Project, led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), hosted the Governance for Health (G4H) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Roundtable 2013 (G4H2013) at Georgetown University in August. The overwhelming consensus of G4H2013? Governance matters.

Strengthening health systems at all levels is the core of MSH’s response to the HIV epidemic. We build organizational capacity to implement innovative HIV, prevention, care, and treatment interventions in over 35 countries---from Côte d'Ivoire to Ethiopia to Vietnam.

This post includes portions of the introduction, questions, and answers from the English edition of "Transition Forward, Issue 1, June 2013" (PDF). 

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). 

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.

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.

We have seen some remarkable gains in global health in 2012. Yet millions of women, children, and men still die from preventable causes. As we pause and reflect on 2012 and look ahead to the new year, I invite you to read and share some of our favorite blog posts from the year.Saving women's lives: Meeting the unmet need for family planning.

On December 3, 2012, the international community commemorated International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

My grandmother married at 8 years old; my mother married at age 15.I often wonder what their lives --- their potential --- would have been, if they were not child brides.Today, the same pattern is repeated in villages and cities around the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).