Health and AIDS Newsletter, January to June 2007

The World Bank Institute’s Health and AIDS Program Electronic Newsletter
January to June, 2007

 
Contents:
1. Note from Abdo Yazbeck, Program Leader
2. The new AIDS Strategy and Action Plan Services Program
3. Highlights of upcoming global events from July – December, 2007
4. Selected highlights from last January – June, 2007
 

 1.  Note from Abdo Yazbeck, Program Leader, Health and AIDS
 
Dear Colleagues,

Twice a year we share with you a quick summary of upcoming events and some highlights of our program in the last 6 months.  In this issue of the newsletter we have also included a short summary of a new and exciting learning program our team has been working on in collaboration with UNAIDS and a global consortium of training institutions based in Mexico, Lebanon, Hungary, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand.   The brief description of the AIDS Strategy and Action Plan Services--ASAP is in the next section, but feel free to contact us or occasionally check our website, if you want additional operational information.  Our team is also engaged in a second large investment in content which focuses on improving governance in the health sector.  We will have more information on it in the next issue of the newsletter (December 2007).

There are a number of exciting global courses programmed for the next six months:  Global Course on the MDGs and Reproductive Health in Bangkok (fully subscribed), Global Course on Equity in the Health Sector in Budapest in October (accepting applications), and the Global Flagship on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing in November in Washington (also accepting applications). More over, our Web-based courses are growing in number and languages. All these courses have been in high demand and tend to fill up quickly, so if you are interested in attending apply sooner rather than later.

Hope to hear from you soon or to see you in one of our courses.

Abdo Yazbeck
Program Leader
Health and AIDS Team

2.  Highlighting of the new AIDS Strategy and Action Plan Services Program (ASAP)

In spite of the numerous positive efforts that have been made globally in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, AIDS programs have not made the expected impact in very many countries due to poor planning  which has inevitably resulted in a lack of priority setting and the ineffective use of funds. Well-elaborated national AIDS strategies and annual AIDS priority action plans are therefore prerequisite for successful implementation of national programs and projects. This major hurdle has now been surmounted with the introduction of the AIDS Strategy and Action Plan (ASAP) assistance program --- a service of UNAIDS and its Cosponsors --- in response to countries request for assistance in improving strategies and preparing annual plans.

The mission of ASAP is to provide technical assistance to countries by responding  to requests for support in developing workable HIV strategies and annual plans that are evidence-based and results-oriented with clearly delineated priorities and costing for what needs to be done.
 
ASAP is a one-stop shop through which  countries can seek advice and support in developing their national AIDS strategies and action plans, benefit from knowledge sharing, and request capacity development support. The capacity building component of ASAP, managed by the World Bank Institute, consists of regional training workshops and follow-up technical assistance. ASAP workshops are of two week duration and target policy makers and technical staff with responsibility for national economic and budgetary planning, as well as persons with planning and implementation responsibility for Health and AIDS. The objective is to create a platform for country teams to share experiences and learn from each other under the guidance of experts in order to strengthen their capacity in strategy development and action planning.

ASAP activities are hosted by the World Bank on behalf of UNAIDS. For more information, please refer to http://www.worldbank.org/asap.

3.  Highlights of Upcoming Events (July – December, 2007)

S’ADAPTER AU CHANGEMENT - Atteindre les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement par la Santé de la Reproduction et les Réformes du Système de Santé -  Cours Régionale francophone - Cotonou, Bénin : du 16 au 27 Juillet 2007 - Le cours sera axé autour de trois problématiques fondamentales. La santé de la Reproduction est utilisée comme porte d’entrée pour les analyses : i) Contexte changeant : Population, Réduction de la pauvreté et Santé de la Reproduction ; ii) Offre de services en santé : les méthodes et outils d’adaptation au changement et de gestion ;  iii) Réforme du secteur de la santé et ses implications sur les programmes. Contact:  Michelle Morris at mmorris1@worldbank.org. For more information, visit our web site

ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS – APPLY NOW - Global Course on Achieving the MDGs: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform, Bangkok, Thailand from August 14-25, 2007, in collaboration with Chualalongkorn University.  The content focused on tools and language that helps participants work more effectively in contexts where funding approaches are shifting from project to programmatic assistance (under PRCs and SWAps), and where the criteria for funding are based on reducing the burden of poor reproductive health outcomes for poor women. Contact: Lan Joo at ljoo@worldbank.org. For more information, visit our web site

Global Advanced Flagship Course on Poverty, Equity and Health Systems, held at the Health Services Management Training Center, Semmelweiss University, Budapest, Hungary, October 1 – 5, 2007.  The 3rd offering of this advanced course was built on the World Bank's Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing. The course is designed for health sector managers, government officials and public health experts involved in health sector reform, and particularly policy makers who take part in the development, implementation, and monitoring of poverty reduction strategies. For more information, visit  web site 

Global Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing, Washington DC, October 29 – November 16, 2007.  Two new in-depth modules on Social Health Insurance and on Pharmaceuticals have been added to the curriculum.  The course introduces a practical and comprehensive framework for understanding health systems and their performance and a structured approach to developing health system reform policies to improve that performance.  Specific course modules examine the theoretical and empirical basis for reform strategies in such diverse areas as health financing, payment systems, organizational change, regulation, and population and provider behavior, making extensive use of case materials from countries in all regions and at all levels of development.  For more information, visit  web site

E-Learning Courses The Health and Aids program has implemented a strategy of expanding access to knowledge and capacity building efforts by converting parts of its training program into Web-Based courses.  This has the potential to greatly widen the reach of critical content to include audiences that otherwise would not have been covered.  For participants taking a Web-Based course means that they do not have to travel, they are away from the office less, and because they are taking the course while they are actually on the job, they can immediately apply what they are learning, thus making this truly “action learning”.

The e-learning philosophy the team adopted involves participants in a collaborative setting.  This typically entails participants commenting on each other’s work and collaborating to come up with joint products during most of the courses. This fosters peer-to-peer exchange of expertise and knowledge. Most courses are facilitated, which means there is a facilitator to guide the exchange, but this individual does not lead the discussion but rather stays in the background.  This philosophy is grounded in modern adult learning pedagogic theory, which indicates that adults learn more and retain knowledge for a longer period of time if they are in charge of their own learning rather than being a passive consumer.

The program offers four separate courses with multiple offerings each during the year. Some of them are also offered in multiple languages.  For more detailed descriptions of each of the courses and updated offering dates, as well as links to the application forms, please go to our  web site here. 

4.   Selected Highlights from January through June, 2007

Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing, Delhi, India, January 30-February 2, 2007
Participants: The technical workshop targeted approximately 20 faculty members from various public and private Indian training institutes as well as donor representatives.  
Partner: This workshop was organized by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) in collaboration with WBI. 
Description: To strengthen the capacity of the local faculty to better understand the design and delivery modality of the Flagship Learning Program on Health Sector Reform so that they can themselves customize the program and teach in future Indian courses.  The workshop also included a brainstorming session with Indian Senior Policy-makers.  Its purpose was to have a better understanding of what policy-makers see as gaps in knowledge in the area of Health Systems Policy and Management and to guide the WBI and NIHFW team in better designing and customizing the Program to be an effective learning program to contribute to the policy environment in India.  Contact: Hadia Karam at hsamaha@worldbank.org

Achieving Millennium Development Goals: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform, Karachi, Pakistan, Feb-12-22, 2007
Partners: The Aga Khan University, GTZ, Heartfile (Policy NGO), Packard Foundation, Hewlett Foundation. 
Participants: 43 Policy makers, NGO Leaders, Academicians.
Description: The course was a country specific adaptation of WBI's global course and enabled participants to (i) understand and thereafter be more effective players in the broader policy and program environment that has emerged, (ii) make their population and reproductive health work more relevant and thereby more effective in the context of health reforms, sectoral programs, and poverty reduction, and (iii) increase their capacity to operate effectively within the framework of new approaches to donor assistance such as sectorwide and program support. Contact: Abdo Yazbeck at Ayazbeck@worldbank.org

Senior Policy Flagship Seminar on Health Financing in Banja Luka - Mrarkovica,  Bosnia & Herzegovina, February 21-23, 2007
Partners: European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies, Semmelweis University, ECSHD, HDNHE and WHO/Euro.
Participants: 25 top-level representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Participants were from the State-level Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), and from the following institutions in both Entities and the District of Brcko: Ministries of Health, Ministries of Finance, Health Insurance Funds, and Institutes of Public Health.
Description: This seminar built knowledge and shared information among participants about health policy; health financing, in particular risk pooling and provider payments; and, pharmaceutical governance. Group work and discussions were applied to the BiH context, and focused on: strengthening revenue collection through better information; improving access to care by pooling on an entity and state level; challenges in the introduction of hospital payment reforms; and, actions to improve governance, pricing and procurement in the pharmaceutical market.
Contact: Gaston Sorgho at gsorgho@worldbank.org

Accelerating Progress towards the Health MDGs and other Health Outcomes Core Course, Washington DC, March 19-30, 2007,
Partners:  Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Participants: 28  key players for achieving the MDG's - government representatives, civil society organizations and other stakeholders
Description: This 10 day core course shared information, tools and knowledge of reforms and essential public health functions to empower participants to become effective agents of change. The main message was to highlight the fact that money counts but that more money and economic growth are of themselves not enough to achieve the MDG's. Systems matter, as do supporting institutions, household and communities, policies and politics. The course also emphasized that effective interventions, actions and policies exist but that adaptation to the country context is critical.
Contacts: Isabel Pimenta at irochapimenta@worldbank.organd Gaston Sorgho at gsorgho@worldbank.org

Fourth Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform, Sustainable Financing and Primary Health Care Reform, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, April 2-13, 2007
Partner: This course was organized by the Center for Health Systems Development of the Ministry of Health in Kyrgyz Republic in collaboration with WHO and WBI. 
Participants: The flagship course targeted 57 participants from Ministries of Health, World Bank Project Implementation units, NGOs and other stakeholders. 
Description: The Flagship course offered participants analytical and policy-making skills to design and implement policies to improve health system performance in their countries. It also provided participants with measurement tools to assess the performance of health systems, methods to improve health financing and primary health care delivery using international experience. Participants worked extensively on applying theories to their own country context in group work and case studies.  
Contact: Jo Hindriks at jhindriks@worldbank.org

Turkey Human Resources for Health, Ankara, Turkey, April 23-28, 2007.
Participants: 100 decision-makers from different sectors, including the Prime Minister's office, Ministries of Finance, Health, Education, Labor & Social Security, Treasury, different provincial health directorates, professional associations and private sector representatives in Turkey.
Description: The seminar addressed key human resources issues such as labor market dynamics, macroeconomic constraints on scaling up the production an employment of health workers (session delivered by the Bank resident Sr. Economist), health outcomes linked to human resource for health (HRH), health  workforce Monitoring & Evaluation.  The event followed up on an assessment of the health workforce situation in Turkey performed jointly by WHO, Harvard School of Public Health and the Turkish Ministry of Health during March 2007. Focus country program.
Partners: National School of Public Health, WHO-Geneva, WHO-Euro, the Queen Margaret University College (Edinburgh), and the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Universidade Nova de Lisboa).
Contact: Stephan Legros at slegros@worldbank.org

The first national customized Flagship course on Health Policy and Management, Jaipur, India. April 23-28, 2007.
Participants:  38 participants from Orissa, UP, Rajasthan, West Bangal and Uttraranchal, India.  This course was targeted towards mid to high level government officials, as well as those in the not for profit private sector and academic institutions.
Partners:  The Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) and delivered jointly with National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) - the local partner institute.  The course was cosponsored by GTZ, USAID, and DFID. 
Description: This face-to-face course is the first towards building institutional and local capacity in India.  The curriculum  was developed by a core team of international and Indian experts and was co-taught by both groups.   The specific objectives of the course were to contribute to the creation of a critical mass of people in Afghanistan who are able to:  -more effectively understand and assess problems in health sector related to efficiency, equity, and sustainability; -understand the processes for mobilizing funds for health care; -understand the reasons for and limitations of health reform options, and -understand the incentives created by particular payment and funding mechanisms.  Focus Country Activity.
Contact: Hadia Karam at hsamaha@worldbank.org

Chile Senior Policy Seminar (SPS) on Disease Control Priorities, Santiago, Chile, April 10-11, 2007
Partners: Pan American Health Organization, Ministry of Health Chile, Population Reference Bureau, and the World Bank's LAC Region and HDNHE
Participants: The course was attended by 70 senior government officials (including the Minister of Health, Chile) from Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Uruguay. 
Description: This seminar was the first dissemination event for the newly published Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries (DCP2) in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. The SPS was designed to introduce the governments of Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay to the main DCP2 findings and to assist them in refining their approach to priority setting in the health sector by introducing them to Cost Effectiveness Analysis. The seminar enhanced the capacity of the countries to apply the tools described in DCP2 and thereby improve the efficiency of their health planning. The event also served to explore the interest of these countries in furthering the collaboration with the World Bank with respect to the utilization of DCPP for health sector planning. Regional Event.
Contact: Tazim Mawji at tmawji@worldbank.org

Public Private Partnership in Health - National Course for Senegal, Dakar, Senegal, May 7-11, 2007
Partners:  WHO/Geneva, WBI and health operations in the Senegal Office.
Participants: 50 participants, health service stakeholders, including decision makers at local authorities' level, public sector health service managers, NGOs, other private providers and community leaders. 
Description:  The workshop's purpose was to strengthen national policy for private sector involvement in the health sector in order to improve health service delivery within local authorities. Based on local authorities and relevant stakeholders' needs, challenges for effective delivery of health services at the local level were addressed through case studies, experience sharing and lessons learnt from international community, and action learning for implementation of PPP policy tools.
Contact: Gaston Sorgho at gsorgho@worldbank.org

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