Benin: Strengthening Community Health for Sustainable Primary Health Care 

Health Care Financing, HIV & AIDS, Leadership, Management, and Governance

Benin: Strengthening Community Health for Sustainable Primary Health Care 

Leadership Management and Governance, Benin, IHSA

Overview

Benin is advancing its Politique Nationale de Santé Communautaire (PNSC; 2024–2030) — the National Community Health Policy — to deliver essential primary health care services directly to households through Relais Communautaires (RCs, or community relays) and Agents de Santé Communautaire Qualifiés (ASCQs, or qualified community health workers).

A central component of this work is application of the Community Health Planning and Costing Tool (CHPCT), developed by MSH in collaboration with UNICEF and used in multiple countries, to model service delivery costs, fiscal sustainability, and projected health impact. In Benin, CHPCT supports national stakeholders in assessing cost-effectiveness, estimating long-term financing requirements, and shaping evidence-based investment cases for community health.

Our approach focuses on:

  • Translating national policy into operational and institutional arrangements
  • Strengthening sustainable community health financing pathways
  • Reinforcing decentralized planning and execution at commune level
  • Building national capacity for data-driven oversight and decision-making

By aligning financing, governance, and frontline delivery, MSH supports Benin in building a resilient, nationally led community health system that advances universal health coverage.

Related Focus Areas

Health Care FinancingLeadership, Management, and GovernancePandemic Preparedness and ResponsePolicy and AdvocacyPrimary Health CareSystems Thinking for HealthUniversal Health CoverageWomen’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health
A health worker administers a COVID vaccine to a man under a tree in Benin.

From Policy to Platform: Operationalizing Community Health Reform

  • Benin’s PNSC sets an ambitious vision: bring primary health care closer to communities while strengthening national ownership.
  • MSH works alongside national institutions to translate that vision into actionable financing frameworks, coordination mechanisms, and performance monitoring tool
Patrick Pascal Saint Firmin web headshot
Patrick Pascal Saint-Firmin

Project Advisor

Project Contact

Dr. Pascal Saint-Firmin is a Senior Principal Technical Advisor within MSH’s Health Economics and Financing Practice Area. He manages the health financing technical assistance pipeline to support business development and project requests across MSH’s global portfolio. He has more than 18 years of applied analytics experience across 20 countries through remote and in-country technical support roles, senior management, and team leader positions under projects funded by various donors, including the Global Fund and USAID. He also served as a family medicine practitioner for more than a decade. In his current role, he provides oversight and analytical support to country governments and programs for domestic resource mobilization, health financing system evaluations, budget spending and efficiency, sustainable supply chain financing systems, innovative and private-sector financing solutions, strategic purchasing, and provider payment system design and reforms. He is passionate about the increasing role of governments and the private sector in building sustainably financed and resilient health systems that are responsive to communities’ needs while protecting them from financial hardship.

He formerly served as a technical advisor in health financing at Palladium and has provided technical support across the Caribbean, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining Palladium, Dr. Saint-Firmin served as health systems strengthening and costing consultant and project team leader with Dexis Consulting Group and a health financing advisor with Abt Associates. He previously worked under USAID-funded projects with MSH in Haiti for five years, serving as health systems strengthening director and senior technical advisor on the SCMS project. He was also a health financing specialist and service delivery technical advisor on the SDSH project.

He holds an MD from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Université Notre-Dame d’Haiti and an MS in international health policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is a native French and Haitian Creole speaker and is fluent in English.

Related Projects

A community health voulnteer during the polio vaccination campaign photo by Samy Rakotoniaina
Community Health Planning and Costing

[Adekeye Dorcas and her two children at their home in Kwara state, Nigeria.] {Photo credit: Mary Dauda/MSH}
Primary Health Care Performance Management (PHC-PM)

A group of people meeting and working on their laptops.
Azura Sankofa Advisory at MSH

Donors & Partners

Donor

  • UNICEF

Partners

  • Government of Benin
  • Agence Nationale des Soins de Santé Primaires (ANSSP)
  • Conseil National de Lutte contre le VIH, la Tuberculose, le Paludisme, les Hépatites, les IST et les Épidémies (CNLS-TP)
  • Ministry of Health technical units
  • One Health Platform

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