The Leadership, Management, and Governance Approach

The Leadership, Management, and Governance Approach

The ongoing decentralization of the health system in Benin places significant responsibility on local stakeholders for administrative matters in terms of monitoring and mobilizing resources, particularly for community health. These responsibilities, in turn, require enhanced capacity to manage the planning of resource allocation, implementation, and monitoring of community health programs.

To strengthen these skills and promote good intersectoral coordination of health interventions among communes and departments, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Integrated Health Services Activity (IHSA), implemented by Management Sciences for Health and its partners, uses an internationally proven program: Leadership, Management, and Governance (LMG).

Two levels of partners were targeted using the Leadership Development Program Plus (LDP+) at the health facility level and the governance strengthening program at the commune level. LDP+ is a process for identifying challenges to be met as a team to achieve defined outcomes by developing practical solutions using local resources and expertise. Governance is a process of collective decision making to ensure the ongoing vitality and performance of organizations or health systems that protect, promote, or restore people’s health.