Leadership Management and Governance (LMG)

This is the last in a series of four blog posts about the impact of leadership, management, and governance in strengthening health systems. See the full series on our blog.

Hurricane Matthew weakened Haiti’s already vulnerable health system when it struck last month, adding to the many challenges that the country’s government already faces in providing quality health services to its population.

Now, more than ever, Haiti needs strong leadership, management, and governance in the health sector to strengthen the system and ensure that its people have access to the care they need.

Even before the storm, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere was already facing political instability, the lasting effects of the 2010 earthquake, and an ongoing cholera epidemic, all of which seriously impacted the country’s health system.

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 third in a series of four blog posts on this topic. See the full series

In my nearly 20 years of experience in global health, I have seen that leadership and governance often receives little attention, even though it is an essential building block of any strong health system.

This is why LeaderNet – an online global community of health professionals – recently hosted a seminar entitled Dream Teams: Bringing Boards and Staff Together for Organizational Success.

The seminar aimed to bring leadership and governance to the forefront of the conversation, providing a forum for global health professionals to exchange ideas, experiences, and resources about leading teams that work at all levels of health systems around the world.

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.

Over the last five years at the MSH-led, USAID-funded Leadership Management and Governance Project, our experience has underscored the importance of good governance, management and leadership to achieve service delivery outcomes in all health areas — from family planning to maternal, newborn and child health to HIV and AIDS.

The Leadership, Management and Governance Project's activities range from strengthening leadership and management skills of staff at the centralized level of Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population to supporting midwife managers to deliver high-quality family planning and reproductive health services in their communities at the decentralized level in Malawi.

And a happy International Women’s Day to you too. Every year, on March 8, activists, organizations, and officials celebrate advancements in women’s rights; however, despite global advocacy and action, women continue to suffer a disproportionate burden of disease and death.

If health systems are expected to deliver responsive and high-quality health services that can end preventable child and maternal deaths, then governments, organizations, and leaders must first address women’s continued underrepresentation in health leadership, management, and governance.

Frankly put, expanding women’s health leadership requires a health system-wide approach that collaborates with individuals, organizations, and governments. For the LMG Project, this means building individual women’s leadership capacity, highlighting the importance of women in health governance, and mainstreaming gender at all levels of a health system.

A version of this post originally appeared on USAID's Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) project blog. Nearly 30 staff from Management Sciences for Health (MSH), including several from LMG, participated in the fourth International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), January 25-28, 2016, in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, which called for "Global Commitments, Local Actions.” The conference was co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Population and Family Planning Board of Indonesia (BKKBN).

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.

This post originally appeared on K4Health's Blog and the Leadership, Management & Governance (LMG) Project Blog.

I struggled with the plateauing or even declining performance of a health service delivery organization I was supporting. I agonized over weaning another such organization away from relying on aid and becoming self-reliant. I spent sleepless nights wondering why yet another health sector organization was adrift, and how I could help it get onto a steady course and in a definitive direction.

Increasingly, I am convinced that the answer lies in improving how these organizations are governed.

Wednesday, August 12, is International Youth Day; the date designated by the United Nations to recognize the influence young people have on society and to raise awareness of youth issues. Currently, there are over 1.8 billion young people in the world that are not only patients, clients, and beneficiaries, but providers and leaders who can contribute to a healthier future for all.