Designup

Category: 2004

  • Cooperation in Health Care System Transformation in Georgia-CoReform Project, 2004-2009

    In 2004 with the financial aid of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in the Caucasus, the project “Cooperation in Heath System Transformation Project” commenced. The project was completed in September 2009. The project provided technical assistance to the Government of Georgia (GoG) to strengthen its capacity to transform the health system of the country into a more efficient, accountable, and transparent one. With the cooperation of the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs (MoLHSA), Abt Associates (Abt), Care International (CARE), Emerging Markets Group (EMG), and Curatio International Foundation (CIF), the project was designed to assist the government of Georgia to improve its health care financing system, reproductive health support, family planning (RH/FP), and strengthen health institutions at the national level.

    Activities were designed to position the GoG to adopt an innovative and comprehensive approach towards formulating solutions that address significant equity and affordability gaps in the health system, high abortion rates, and the limited donor coordination.

    The project consisted of the following major components:

    Health Financing and Policy Development;
    National Health Accounts;
    Family Planning and Reproductive Health;
    Organizational Development and Donor Harmonization.
    National Health Accounts was implemented by CIF in close cooperation with MoLHSA and an intersectoral working group represented by following agencies: Public Health Department, Ministry of Economy, State Statistic Department, Insurance State Supervision Board, Insurance Association, SUSIF, Ministry of Finances, Statistic and Disease Control Centre, and National Institute of Health and Social Issues. The main goal of the project was to implement and institutionalize National Health Accounts (NHA) as a policy tool and integrate it within broader health system reforms. This component took place in the period of September 2004 -September 2007.

    Family Planning and Reproductive Health has been implemented by Care International, which has specific responsibility to implement this component in close partnership with CIF. The main goal of the reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP) policy component of the project was to achieve an improved legislative, regulatory, and policy framework to provide an adequate supply to the increased demand for quality reproductive health services. The RH/FP policy team strategy was to assist the MoLHSA by supporting the policy working group at national level. The activities of the reproductive Health Policy Working Group were designed to achieve objectives related to the improvement of access to RH/FP services. Target outputs of the policy working group included: a comprehensive review and analysis of the current policy and regulatory framework governing the provision of and access to family planning and reproductive health information and services; a National RH/FP Policy to enhance access to and delivery of quality RH services; the National RH Strategy for the purpose of providing guidance for activating the RH policy; and drafting legislation in support of the Georgian RH Policy, in order to provide the MoLHSA and the government with a legislative platform to implement the Policy (in progress). This second component of the project took place between October 2004 and September 2008.

    Organizational Development and Donor Harmonization. The main goal of this component of the project was to achieve a “better functioning of the MoLHSA through improvement of the functioning of organizations within the health sector, establishment of coordinated linkage between policy planning, project design, and project implementation.” Since 2004, the CoReform OD Team has been providing significant assistance to the MoLHSA and its affiliated agencies to define their core functions, to put in place functional structures with clear roles and responsibilities, establish a health policy process that is more transparent and systematic, institutionalize donor harmonization and coordination as a routine function of the MoLHSA, and build the capacity of the Ministry staff to enable them to effectively carry our their newly defined roles and responsibilities. The key implementer of this component during the optional period (October 2006 – September 2009) is CIFs in close partnership with Abt Associates, which had been performing specific responsibilities in the Project Base Period (October 2004 – September 2006). The major strategies of the component are: the MoLHSA System Reorganization, Performance Improvement, Policy Cycle Management, and Capacity Building.

  • Effectiveness of Supportive Supervision in Improving the Performance of National Immunization Program in Georgia

    The project was funded by Cida/IDRC (Canadian International Development Centre; The International Development Research Centre) and implemented by Curatio International Foundation in collaboration with Toronto University. The duration of the project was July 2004 – March 2006.

    The study objective was to document the effects of “supportive supervision” on the performance of the immunization program at the district level in Georgia.

    The intervention package included: development of supervisory guidelines, district-level training, continuous supervision and support, monitoring and evaluation, and funding for Centers of Public Health to carry out the package of interventions (travel and communication costs). Supportive supervision, which was the focal point of the package of interventions, was based on introducing updated job descriptions with documented lines of supervision; improving communication lines and skills; introducing guidelines and tools for supervision, performance review and monitoring, and evidence-based action planning, all of which help health workers to improve immunization service delivery.

    The effectiveness of the intervention package was assessed with a pre/post-experimental research design. The package of interventions was uniformly implemented in 15 districts selected randomly out of the nation’s 67 districts. Another 15 districts were selected to serve as controls. Measurements were assessed at the baseline and end of the one-year intervention. Quantitative, qualitative and postal surveys were used to collect the information and derive conclusions. Study revealed that significant improvements in the performance of immunization program occurred after implementation of the intervention. In contrast to control districts, intervention districts experienced a significant increase in DPT-3 coverage, decrease in contraindications rate, decrease in refusals rate, and decrease in vaccine wastage between baseline and follow-up stages. The intervention did not appear to have independently contributed to the relative change in service delivery outcome indicators.

  • HIV/AIDS Mapping Study in the Central Asia Region

    Imperial College Consultants (Central Asia HIV/AIDS mapping study April-June 2004), together with the Curatio International Foundation, have designed and managed implementation of the Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan) HIV/AIDS mapping study, which looked at the spread and the overlap of four epidemics (HIV, STI, TB and Drug Use). The study detected critical regional drivers for the epidemic spread that require regional response. The findings were used to advocate Central Asian governments for the regional HIV/AIDS control project.

  • Community Based Health Financing Project

    Community Based Health Financing (CBHF) project was implemented by Curatio International Foundation (CIF) through the Sub-Grant Agreement No: RFA-GC6-001-DT under the West Georgia Community Mobilization Initiative Project, which was administered by the Care International in Caucasus and was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CIF started project implementation in August 2003 and completed it by August 2004, in accordance with the proposed implementation schedule.

    The main goal of the CBHF project was to decrease the financial access barriers for the poor members of the targeted communities by establishing Community managed and operated health care schemes, that mobilize community’s financial resources (designated for the health care) on a pre-paid basis.

    CIF identified the following objectives:

    Establish 12-18 sustainable CBHF schemes in selected geographic areas, involving communities and local healthcare providers;
    Utilize CBHF schemes to target the most needy within the communities;
    Develop and strengthen local capacity to manage CBHF schemes;
    Ensure future sustainability of CBHF schemes
    The following Project Activities took place during the implementation phase:

    Initial assessment of the situation in 6 regions of Western Georgia;
    Selection of communities that indicated interest in establishing CBHF schemes
    Through the participatory approach, designed CBHF schemes that were custom tailored to each selected community;
    Introduced the designed schemes to Community Based organization through Workshops;
    Identified the training needs of the Community groups and Health Providers;
    Developed training materials for the Communities and Health Providers based on the identified needs;
    Trained Fund Managers, and Health Providers;
    The CBHF Schemes were initiated in 8 targeted communities.