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I. Letter from Abdo Yazbeck
Dear Friends,
Building on the success of the 14 editions of our "Adapting to Change" electronic newsletter, let me welcome you to our first "Health, Nutrition, and Population" WBI Newsletter. We are using the same successful approach and format of the previous newsletters and expanding it to include activities under all our programs. This change reflects internal changes in WBI and the HNP Program which have consolidated our programs and teams. This also means that this newsletter is now sent not only to our alumni from the "Adapting to Change" Program but also to participants in our other programs, which include the "Flagship Program on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing". To not clutter up your mailboxes, we have decided to make this newsletter a quarterly affair, and to keep it reasonably short with links to more information on the web. The main objective of the newsletter remains the same, to provide an opportunity for our “community of practice” of professionals working in Health Systems, Reproductive Health, and Health Equity to share knowledge and information and to be aware of upcoming discussion and training events.
Much has happened in the last few months. We have some new team members, new partners, and new courses. We are also embarking on a series of new investments that will add content and expand our web-based tools with more courses, more discussion forums and more on-line articles to be discussed. This first edition of our inclusive newsletter will share all these changes with you. I hope that you will take advantage of our discussion forums and on-line journal. I am excited about the HNP program and WBI and look forward to more partnerships and activities that build and strengthen our communities of practice and ultimately serve our clients
Please feel free to always log onto our website at: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/healthandaids/ for the latest information about courses, dates, places, activities, partners, and other information.
If you have specific questions please write to us at wbihdhnp@worldbank.org
I hope that you will find this newsletter useful and that we have the opportunity to interact with you in the near future
Best regards,
Abdo Yazbeck and the Health Nutrition and Population Program Team
II. New Team Members
Isabel Rocha Pimenta is a physician specialized in radiology from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. During her medical training, she co-founded and directed a non-profit organization in Brazil which offers free reconstructive surgery for poor children with facial deformities. She received her MBA at Kellogg University, in health care and management strategy. She also worked in management strategy consulting with focus in the US private health care sector. Last year, she began working with the Health Nutrition and Population team on the Flagship Course for the Latin American region, and with the Human Resources for Health group in the African region. She is working with the Leadership Program on AIDS also, where she helps to manage policy workshops in South Asia and Africa. She conducted cross-support strategic planning work for the South Asia HIV/AIDS portfolio.
Stephane Legros, Sr. Public Health Specialist with WBI HNP, spent the last 6 years with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he led programs on Health Sector Reform, Performance and Quality Management and, Maternal and Neonatal Health with a focus on the Latin America and Caribbean region and francophone Africa. Prior to this, he spent 9 years based in Brazil managing significant public health projects -HIV/AIDS, Hospital Management, blood safety, pre-hospital emergency network- for the entire Southern Cone region. He is a physician, holding an MPH and an MBA. Stephane is in charge of Europe and Central Asia and part of the Africa regions for HNP. He is also bringing his experience with the Latin America and Caribbean public health network to his post.
III. Major Activities from July to January 2003
The Seven (7)-part Flagship courses for Iran This is the HNP Team first attempt of deep customization which takes the materials of the Flagship course and spreads it over a series of one week-courses which systematically try to directly address specific country needs. Three courses have been completed to date and there are four more to follow. This process has been done in collaboration with the American University of Beirut (the Regional Partner Institute), the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and the Bank's MENA Region. The courses that have been delivered are: 1) National Iran Course on Basic Health Economics and Finance from October 18 to 22, 2003; 2) National Iran Course on Assessing Health Sector Performance; and 3) National Iran Course on Financing Health Care. The courses to be delivered are: 1) Provider Payment Mechanisms; 2) Designing a Benefit Package and Targeting Public Subsidies; 3) Institutional Reform; and 4) Decentralization.
East Asia Flagship Course, Thailand
In October, members of the HNP team delivered the Thailand East Asia Flagship Course in Bangkok in collaboration with the East Asia Partner Centre for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University. This two-week course integrated the content of four Flagship modules with particular emphasis on issues confronting policy-makers in East and South Asia and specifically presented an Introduction to the Concepts and Analytical Tools of Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing, and Analyzing Health Sector Performance. Decentralization and sharing of resources and responsibilities were also discussed.
The Designing and Costing a Reproductive Health Benefit Package new course
This course was designed in collaboration with our Flagship partner in the American University of Beirut (AUB) which worked with the HNP team to adapt elements of the Reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) course. The one week course held in the American University of Beirut from October 6-10, 2003, was successfully delivered to participants from the MENA region.
The Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing - Rural Health Reform, China
The two 3 1/2-day executive training courses in October were delivered in Shanghai and Yichang, China. The courses were jointly organized by WBI and its partner, the China Health Network and MOH. Local health departments and the China Health Economics Association local branch (SH) assisted in the local organization of the courses. Over 100 participants from MOH, provincial (and other local) departments of health, the bureaus of Planning and Finance, as well as Academia, attended the courses. The training focused on defining the issues of China's rural health reform and providing basic knowledge necessary for designing and implementing the pilot community health financing schemes. The two EXT courses were modified from a 5-day TOT course delivered in Beijing, in September. Another similar course (extended EXT) was delivered in one province (Guizhou) in October by the China Health Network faculty. The positive feedback from the participants for all four courses indicates a continual need for training in this area. Therefore, the Network will roll out a set of modules revised from this year's material to deliver to a larger number of participants next year.
The Poverty, Equity and Health Systems in Europe and Central Asia new course
This week-long training activity offered in September 2003, was innovative in many respects. First, it was fully designed by a partner institute, the Health Services Management Training Center, Semmelweiss University, in Budapest. The idea for the course, design of the curriculum, research and writing of teaching cases, and delivery of the course with support of international experts from the World Bank and WHO, was done by the local team. Second, several organizations collaborated and contributed financially to make this course possible. Funding for curriculum development was provided by WBI, participant scholarships were funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI), and the week-long teaching case of Kyrgyzstan was supported by WHO/DfID Health Policy Analysis Project in Bishkek. Thirdly, the course was delivered to Flagship alumni who have taken the core course on health systems.
Training of Trainers (TOT) for the Anglophone Africa Regional Program on 'Achieving the MDGs; Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform' in Nairobi, Kenya
In November, HNP team members delivered the first TOT for approximately 20 experts and resource persons gathered from African training institutions and partner agencies such as WHO, The Population Council, the African Population Advisory Council, and others, to familiarize participants with the material and participatory training techniques that will be used to deliver the first pilot regional Core Course in May 2004 in Mombassa, Kenya.
Third Edition of the web-based course on "Health outcomes and the Poor”
From November 5 to December 19 the third fully web-based e-learning course was held on "Health Outcomes and the Poor". The audience for this course consisted of primarily WHO staff as well as one participant from UNICEF, one participant from a Nigerian NGO and 5 Bank staff. The participants were given weekly assignments which consisted of taking the content of the course for that week and applying it to one of 6 assigned existing PRSPs. In most of the weeks, participants had to analyze the PRSP as a group, identify the factors that were addressed in the PRSP and describe the actions that the PRSP recommended and then to list what they thought should have been in the PRSP. The next facilitated course will take place May 19 to June 30th, 2004. We will be offering a French and Spanish version of the course in the future.
The «Dialogue sur l'assurance-maladie» series
HNP team members led 3 videoconferences (VC) for the Flagship Health activities in Francophone Africa, in the series "Dialogue sur l'assurance-maladie" in mid-December in Paris, France. The VCs targeted 10 Francophone African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Rwanda, Togo), and are part of a process which will help countries prepare their review papers regarding their experience in expanding coverage of health risks. This VC was the first part of the Conference on Health Insurance preparation.
“Achieving the MDGs: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health, and Health Sector Reform” for UNFPA
This one-week course for UNFPA was the third round of the course specifically designed for the training needs of UNFPA staff. The purpose of the training that took place from December 1-6, in Turin, Italy, was to enhance the capacity of UNFPA's Country Support Teams (CSTs) to assist their country offices in working with countries and the donor community in order to ensure that population and reproductive health issues (P/RH) are addressed adequately in Poverty Reduction Strategies and Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAps).
During the course, WBI piloted a special group work approach that focused on PRSPs and sectoral funding of health in five countries (Nicaragua, Ghana, Tanzania, Cambodia and the Kyrgyz Republic). Teams were asked to prepare action plans on how to improve attention to P/RH in poverty analyses, strengthen UNFPA capacity to work on PRSPs and SWAps, and improve monitoring indicators (including expenditure tracking).
Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing
The eighth 3-week global course ended on January 30, 2004. It was designed and delivered in collaboration with the WBI partner, Harvard School for Public Health, in Boston. The course opened with a welcoming speech by Jacques Baudouy, Sector Director for the Human Development Network, Health, Nutrition and Population. Participants from 20 countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Zambia attended. The primary objectives of the course were to enable participants to i) speak a common language about dimensions of health sector reform; ii) achieve a deeper understanding of health finance issues and sustainable financing options; and iii) to understand how to select and apply tools and procedures to make desired changes and to assess their effects.
IV. Highlights of upcoming events
Conference on "Reaching the Poor with Effective Health, Nutrition and Population Services"
The conference will take place from 18 to 20 February 2004 in Washington, DC. The objectives are to identify a promising program and policy approaches for reaching disadvantaged groups with effective health, nutrition, and population services, by assessing the record of recent experience; and to increase awareness and encourage wider use of analytical techniques available to monitor and evaluate how well health, nutrition, and population programs serve the poor. Policy specialists, assisted by conference participants, will summarize the findings of the case studies that examine how well health, nutrition, and population interventions have reached disadvantaged groups relative to better-off ones, in an effort to identify intervention features most closely associated with effectiveness in reaching the poor.
Health Care Insurance in Francophone Africa: A stock-taking conference organized the Joint Africa Institute (JAI) and WBI.
This event, prepared in collaboration with WHO, the ILO, the French Cooperation, France, and GTZ, Germany, will take place in April 2004 in Paris, France. The Collège des Économistes de Santé, will host the 2-day conference for policy-makers, high ranking civil servants, researchers, trainers from 14 Francophone African countries, as well as staff from World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, AfDB, and bilateral donor agencies. This conference will conclude a cycle of workshops and videoconferences on "Expanding the coverage of health risks” in Francophone Africa, which started in 2001with the support of the JAI.
The course is designed for senior government officials, particularly from ministries of Health, Education, Women’s Affairs, Labor, Population and Welfare, and Finance and/or Planning, as well as representatives of NGOs, private sector organizations, the donor community, and others working in the field of population, reproductive health and health sector reform, including World Bank staff. The subsidized fee for the three week course is US$2,100 and participants are expected to cover the full cost of their travel, subsistence, and hotel expenses.
V. New course descriptions
The Health, Nutrition and Population MDGs; Accelerating Progress: Learning Program
The Achieving the MDGs component of the Program will be expanded to go beyond the current reproductive health focus to include more content on communicable diseases, adolescent health and nutrition. This initiative will also introduce the concept of essential public health functions, which are important mechanisms for the country-based monitoring and evaluation involved in the formulation and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies. The training will be delivered using a three-pronged approach: 1) Senior Policy Seminars targeting high-level policymakers emphasizing the stewardship role of government and the need for a multi-sectoral approach in achieving the health MDGs; 2) A two-week instructor-led course targeting mid-level government officials and professionals exploring the connections among public health functions, health sector reform and the MDGs; and 3) An in-depth distance learning course (e-learning with web-based discussions) training participants in core public health functions.
Public Policy and the Private Health Sector in Asia: Enhancing the Contribution of Private Service Providers to the MDGs
This course will build on the design and content lessons from the successful experience with the Flagship Program on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing and the Course on Population, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform. Additionally, the course will be shaped by current analytical and technical work on health systems, equity, health sector reform, and multi-sectoral approaches to improved health outcomes. This course will provide participants with an understanding of the language and tools of public-private partnerships in health. It will also introduce participants to the most recent operational research on how to engage the private sector to achieve key health related MDGs. The course will apply the analytical framework to the specific case of two public health programs: child health and TB. It will take place in Singapore from May 24th to 29th and will focus on the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia Regions.
The Health Economics DL Course
This course will expose participants to the potential contribution of health economics to decision making in the health sector and educate them on the language of economics and health sector reform so they can be more effective communicators when working with Ministry of Finance. The course will be fully web-based; but will not have a facilitated approach. Instead it will be self-paced with time bound cohorts that would allow students to have access to an expert for a few questions for clarification and limited mentoring for each module.
Elements of Health System Financing E-course
The course "Elements of Health System Financing" seeks to advance an appropriate approach by clarifying and organizing concepts, highlighting policy options, associating those options to health system performance, and sharing relevant experiences. Thereby the course will help health professionals communicate, share knowledge about what works best, and design better health policy and programs involving health financing policy. The course will be fully web-based; given the need for “just in time” training the course will be self-paced with exercises, examples, case studies and self-tests and the opportunity to participate in discussions with peers.
VI. New and Emerging Networks
The well established China Health Economics Network already has 19 institutions. The Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing course has formally adopted the Flagship Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing course as a Ph.D course. The course has been adapted to respond to local rural health priorities.
Two new networks are in the developmental stage: a regional network for all of South and East Asia and one in India; these networks will build on the HNP team’s experiences of existing network models. Initially, they will aim to customize and deliver the Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform courses. As their capacity is strengthened we envision an expansion of their scope from training into areas such as research and policy dialogue using the lessons learned from the successful experiences of our China network model. Our work on these networks will be in conjunction with the Leadership Program on AIDS of WBI.
Russian Federation Partnership
The HNP Team in collaboration with ECAHD is developing a partnership with two Russian training institutions, Moscow Medical Academy and the Higher School of Economics, to customize and deliver the Health Sector Flagship course for the Russian Federation and some of the Russian speaking former Soviet Union countries. This training of trainers will take place by April 04 with the first core course taking place in FY05.
VII. Online discussions updates
The 'Online Journal' disseminates short articles on new and promising approaches to improving health, nutrition and population outcomes, as well as lessons learned about approaches that did not perform as expected. All articles reflect the views of the authors alone and do not reflect an official policy or position of The World Bank. The 'Online Journal' will feature articles that illustrate the rationale, design, implementation, and impact of interventions that make use of one or more of the following means of improving performance; (1) financing or raising revenues, (2) provider payment mechanisms and the incentives they create, (3) micro and macro organizational change, including decentralization and reform of health care institutions, (4) regulation, and (5) promoting healthy behaviors. In other words, articles explain how one or more of these five general areas have been employed to improve health, nutrition and population outcomes.
Submission of articles to the 'Online Journal' is welcome and must conform closely to the Guidelines for Authors. Prior to preparing an article, we advise that authors send a brief description of the subject -- no more than 50 words -- to: eszollosi@worldbank.org . We will respond promptly regarding suitability of the subject for the journal. If you would like to be part of this exciting event, you can still sign up, by sending a blank e-mail to: join-onlinejournal@lists.worldbank.org.
The following articles are the latest to be successfully completed:
Bolivia's Reform to Improve Maternal and Child Mortality by Sandra Camacho, Nicole Schwab and R. Paul Shaw. In the mid 90's, the government of Bolivia collaborated with the World Bank and others to design a health sector reform with the principal goal of reducing the country's high infant and maternal mortality rates, the second highest in Latin America.
Preserving Equity in Health in Cambodia: Health Equity Funds and Prospects for Replicationby Ricardo Bitran, Vincent Turba, Bruno Meessen and Wim Van Damme.
This is an important article for those concerned with equity in a low income country as it illustrates an innovative approach to improve financial risk protection and increase access of the poor.
VIII. Useful Websites, tools and recent publications
The World Development Report 2004 “Making Services Work for Poor People” was published and disseminated in November 2003. It reaffirms that broad improvements in human welfare will not occur unless poor people receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education and other services. The role of providing communities with healthcare, education, and other services has been a controversial issue in many countries, with government services pitted against large-scale privatization. The World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work For Poor People is available at http://econ.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr2004/
For additional information on the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/healthandaids/
To subscribe to the HNPFLASH newsletter, send a blank e-mail to join-hnpflash@lists.worldbank.org
Training Works! what you need to know about managing, designing, delivering, and evaluating group-based training.
What makes one training experience better than another? Effective training can help providers of family planning/ reproductive health (FP/RH) services to improve their performance. This handbook (now available free online) summarizes the tasks that should be completed at each stage of training. If you carry out these tasks, you will have a high-quality training course. You can find a copy of Training Works! at: http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6training/Tngworks/index.htm
The Pan American Health Organization has released a new report on the practice of public health in Latin America and the Caribbean, which focuses on the role of national health authorities in carrying out public health functions. Public Health in the Americas identifies 11 "essential public health functions" which should be the responsibility of the state and provides a methodology for assessing national health authorities‘ discharge of these functions. A central goal is to improve the ability of national health authorities to fulfill their steering role in health.
The Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program (FRONTIERS) announces the publication of "The Contribution of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services to the Fight against HIV/AIDS: A Review" by Ian Askew, Senior Associate, Population Council, Nairobi, Kenya and Marge Berer, Editor, Reproductive Health Matters, London, UK, 2003:11(22):51-73. Please see the full text on the following website: http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/frontiers/journals/AskewBerer.pdf
Equity, Health and Human Development listserver
This electronic list of the Information and Knowledge Management Area of the Pan American Health organization -PAHO/WHO is a news service to disseminate information, promote communication and interdisciplinary links to individuals and organizations working on Equity, Health and Human Development. EQUITY list purpose is to share public health information of international significance that enables policy-makers, researchers and practitioners to be more effective and improves health, particularly among disadvantaged populations.
To subscribe to EQUITY list, send a message to: listserv@paho.org In the body of the message, type: SUBSCRIBE EQUIDAD. List archives website: http://listserv.paho.org/archives/equidad.html Virtual Library: http://equidad.bvsalud.org
The updated website of the DFID Health Systems Resource Centre is http://www.dfidhealthrc.org/
The Resource Centre provides access to technical assistance, knowledge and information in support of pro-poor health policies, financing and services for the UK Department for International Development and its partners. The Eldis Health Systems Resource Guide http://www.eldis.org/healthsystems/
Current topics include health, poverty and vulnerability, priority diseases, aid policy and financing mechanisms, global initiatives and PPPs, access to medicines, human resources for health, and health service delivery.
Gender, Health and Development in the Americas, 2003 Data Sheet - Population Reference Bureau and Pan-American Health Organization
With the goal of raising awareness of gender inequities in the region, the data sheet profiles gender differences in health and development in 48 countries, focusing on women's reproductive health, access to key health services, and major causes of death. The data sheet, available in both English and Spanish, is a collaboration between the Population Reference Bureau's MEASURE Communication Project and the Pan American Health Organization's Gender and Health Unit. To receive a copy, please send your complete mailing address and language preference to: prborders@prb.org, send a fax to 202-328-3937, or visit http://www.prb.org/pdf/GenderHealthDevAmers_Eng.pdf
IX. Meet the HNP team
Meet our team here. If you would like to contact us, please write to us at wbihdhnp@worldbank.org
X. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this Newsletter
Please circulate this message to other interested persons and encourage them to subscribe. Previous issues of the Adapting to Change Newsletter can be accessed here Thank you for your interest in the Health, Nutrition and Population Programs.
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