News and events
January 2012
Launch PLAMAHS-Lite:
We have now launched P-lite which is a free open source version of PLAMAHS, available from: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37685556/P-liteOSv1.exe
A comparison of the modules available in P-lite and P-heavy is available here.
A support group for PLAMAHS, both Lite and Heavy versions, can be found at https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/plamahs
Africa: Potential Mining PPPs to Strengthen Health Systems and Extend Health Services to Underserved Populations
Client: HANSHEP
Health Partners International (HPI - HPSA's parent organisation) and Montrose International, in partnership with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), are undertaking an initiative to enhance the way in which mining industry public-private partnerships (PPPs) can strengthen health services for underserved populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholders from industry, governments and civil society will be brought together to develop standards to improve the performance of these PPPs.
The project has two objectives:
- To improve the health of poor people in Low Income Countries (LICs) by improving the delivery of quality healthcare.
- To enhance both good practice in health programming supported by mining and its public recognition.
The project will contribute to an enhanced understanding of existing mining health PPPs-what works and why-by creating a consensual framework for the assessment of such initiatives and information on the relative costs and benefits of existing approaches and alternatives. It will build bridges to support the design and management of more effective PPPs, showing that these partnerships go beyond improving the productivity of workers to strengthening community relations, enhancing corporate reputations and creating new standards of practice. Ultimately, this project will demonstrate how counterpart investment can result in improved health outcomes for the poor in the short-term and a legacy of greater health equity in the long-term, culminating in a set of "good practice" proposals for potential co-financing by the HANSHEP group.
May 2011
Urging the Nigeria National Assembly 's Senate Committee to drive aid effectiveness
HPI Managing Director, Jeffrey Mecaskey, addressed the Nigerian National Assembly’s Senate Committee on Appropriation at a session on Budgeting and Appropriation for Aid Effectiveness.
Chaired by Senate President, the Honourable David Mark, with support from the Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development, the session convened parliamentarians, representatives of official development assistance partners, such as the World Bank, and civil society to consider how national appropriation processes can better track Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to ensure complementarity and alignment. On noting that investment in health constituted well over 50 percent of ODA, Mecaskey suggested that the National Strategic Health Development Plan along with the IHP+ compact provided Nigeria had an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate how national bodies like the Senate could drive mutual accountability and aid effectiveness to achieve national development objectives. Honourable Senator Iyiola Omisore, Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, indicated that Senate development of an institutional mechanism for tracking ODA flows vis-à-vis national and state appropriations would be an important step forward.
Health Partners Southern Africa has recently been awarded the following projects:
South Africa: Mid-term review of the Global Fund Round VI
Client: National Department of Health (NDOH)
HPSA is conducting a review of initiatives funded under Global Fund Round VI to assess their impact on the expansion of services and strengthening of systems for the implementation of the government’s plan for HIV & AIDS, particularly with respect to underserved rural communities and informal urban settlements. The assessment includes a review of management and institutional arrangements for programme implementation and will identify lessons learnt to feed into the remainder of the programme. The multi-pronged, multi-level, assessment framework takes into account the political, cultural and socio-economic environment of South Africa and the multiple actors in health and HIV, as well as international best-practices in monitoring and evaluation (including use of the Theory of change and the Most Significant Change (MSC) model), especially for health system strengthening. Deliverables include a jointly agreed analytical framework and documented review of institutional and management arrangements employed by principal and sub recipient organisations, that will be consolidated into a comprehensive final report.
Botswana: Development of the strategic plan for the Health Inspectorate Division
Client: Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health in Botswana has appointed Health Partners Southern Africa (HPSA) to develop an integrated strategic plan for the Health Inspectorate Division. The Strategic Plan will incorporate the following:
- The mission, vision, values and objectives of the Health Inspectorate
- A 5 year implementation plan
- Communication Plan for dissemination
- Reporting, Monitoring and evaluation framework
- A Human Resource Plan which will include;
- - Leadership, governance and management arrangements within the directorate
- - Development of the required mechanisms to rapidly and efficiently mobilize and deploy the human and institutional capacity necessary to implement the Strategic Plan.
Zimbabwe: Impact Assessment of the Expanded Support Programme (ESP) for HIV and AIDS
Client: Department for International Development (DfID)
Health Partners Southern Africa, through Health Partners International, conducted the assessment of the Expanded Support Programme (ESP) for HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.
The assessment aimed to determine the following:
- How successful the ESP has been in achieving its targets
- How far this has contributed to the overall achievements of the national response
- How cost-effective the programme has been.
The impact assessment also looked to provide recommendations to inform the future strategic direction of the programme.
Our approach to this work has been to engage in a comprehensive and participatory process with all key stakeholders at national, provincial and district levels; to consult a wide range of relevant documents, reports and monitoring systems; and to acquire an in-depth insight into the experiences gained by partners and beneficiarie.