2017-05-20 14:01:00

Accra, Ghana, May 19, 2017 ' A WAHO delegation led by Dr Kofi Busia, the Project Manager of the USAID-funded Leadership, Capacity Strengthening (CAPS) Project, represented WAHO at the USAID Regional Health Office West Africa Partners' Meeting, held at the Labadi Beach Hotel, in Accra-Ghana, from May 16-19, 2017. Other members of the team included MrSani Ali, Professional Officer Planning, Alhaji Jallow, Accountant in charge of USAID-funded projects, Dr Cletus Adohinzin, Coordinator of the Regional Program for Reproductive Health funded by KFW and Ms. Mercy Aburam, WAHO Liaison Officer for Ghana

Implementing partners from 12 countries, representing projects such as AgirPF, Fistula Care+, Evaluation, E4D, HSS, EPT-2, HFG, HP+, SIAPS and HO IPs, attended the meeting.

The meeting was held under the theme '??Continuous Learning and Adapting'??, with three main objectives, namely:

Increased collaboration, harmonization and leveraging of information and resources
Joint learning and dissemination of evidence from the field
Building and strengthening the regional network of public health implementers, researchers, and donors.

The program of work, which was facilitated by staff of USAID, proceeded as follows:

Plenary Panel 1: Community, Client Engagement and Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC)

Innovative evaluation methodologies for measuring the impact of mass media campaigns in Burkina Faso
Using segmentation research from Niger to develop SBCC strategies across 4 West African countries
Reaching Rural Youth with Family Planning Services in The Sahel Resilience Zones of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger
Contextual Factors Affecting Ebola survivor Engagement with Health Facilities in Liberia

Plenary Panel 2. Theme: Quality Assurance -Disease Surveillance

Deployment of Pilot System of Filovirus Surveillance in Wildlife in Cameroon with support from USAID Predict
Standards Based Management and Recognition (SBM-R): An approach for Performance and Quality Improvement at Health Care Facility: Experience of IMC Project in Burkina Faso
Community Engagement and Facility Governance: Critical Factors for Maintaining High Quality Services in Primary Health Units in Sierra Leone
The impact of the Ebola Virus Epidemic on Reproductive and Maternal Health Care Services in Guinea

Plenary Panel 3. Theme: Universal Health Coverage 'Policy Advocacy and Programming for scale.

Financing of Universal Health Coverage and Family Planning: A Multi-Regional Landscape Study and detailed Analysis of Selected West African Countries
Clinical Audit as a Cost Control Measure for Ghana's National Health Insurance Authority
An Effective Partnership to Support Advocacy Champions for a Favorable FP Policy Environment in WA
Family Planning Costed Implementation Plans: Moving from Beautiful write-up to Execution!
Establishing an Integrated Guinean Health Information System: Toward a pilot and rollout of DHIS2 in Guinea.

Plenary Panel 4. Theme: Linkages to services 'From Evidence to practice

Evaluating Different Linkages to HIV Treatment Implementation Models for Key Populations living with HIV in Cameroon
Linkage to treatment and retention amongst adolescent and young adults in a large antiretroviral treatment program in Nigeria
Studying Key Populations at Risk of HIV: The Role Peer Educators in The Recruitment of Participants
Assessing Uptake of Family Planning through Operations Research: Lessons from Field Implementation

All these presentations were followed by stimulating discussions, after which various breakout sessions were held for USAID staff and Implementing Partners to engage in fruitful dialogue on the various projects being implemented in the region.

The WAHO team then gave an update of the CAPS project, and also moderated two Health Systems Strengthening roundtable group discussions on Regional Commodity Security and Health Financing.

In his closing remarks Alex Deprez, the USAID's Mission Director for West Africa, lauded the enduring partnership between WAHO and the USAID, stressing that WAHO remains USAID's main partner in health in the region. He appealed to all the other implementing partners to work closely with WAHO to ensure successful implementation of all the USAID-funded projects.

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