PM Network - February 2015

To strengthen the health sectors of vulnerable countries, some public health organizations aren’t just deploying vaccine-administering teams or educating communities about sanitation practices that prevent infection. They try to address systemic challenges by executing projects that build lasting infrastructure (clinics, even hospitals) and develop healthcare workforces.

“A lot of times, projects focus only on improving
the quality of healthcare services. That’s important,
but it’s people who are delivering those services,”
says Mr. Ford, whose organization conducts proj-
ects to recruit, train and retain local healthcare
workforces in developing countries. “Governments
need enough healthcare workers deployed in the
right places and trained properly to staff their facili-
ties without having to import workers.”
Ultimately, to prevent the next outbreak of Ebola
or another infectious disease, the healthcare work-
ers who form the backbone of any country’s public
health infrastructure need not only clinical com-
petencies, but project management skills. “Doctors
and nurses in the field could use more training on
how to manage and lead projects,” Mr. Himmelman
says. “Good stewardship of resources, good tracking
of data, good management of teams—those are all
really important skills.”
(for example, vaccinations) a must-have for success.
“Acceptability by the community for which the proj-
ects are planned is the primary thing,” Dr. Kasolo says.
“The community itself has to understand why your
project is being introduced. It has to see the need.”
To illustrate that need, project teams must engage
influencers, such as community organizers. “Very
good social organizers can work with the community
to explain in the simplest terms what the project is all
about,” Dr. Kasolo explains.

PREVENTIVE PROJECTS

Unsurprisingly, projects unrolled rapidly in response to deadly infectious disease outbreaks garner lots of media attention. Yet sector experts and practitioners emphasize that the deeper solution to such public health threats comes through developing a robust healthcare infrastructure.

“When outbreaks like Ebola happen, we recognize quickly that they happen in countries that are among the most vulnerable in the world, with very weak health systems,” says Ken Himmelman, chief program officer, Partners in Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. “These kinds of epidemics can’t help but be more profound in health sectors that themselves are fragile.”