Strengthening Local Capacity for Health Equity Reform in the Philippines

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Project Update
 

The Philippines Health Equity Reform project began implementation on March 4th 2003. The project focuses on building capacity for resource allocation in support of the Health Sector Reform Agenda of the Government of the Philippines.  

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The following activities have taken place:

Project Missions/Trainings

February 2003

  •       Ms. Lori Jones (Project Director) and Ms. Janet Hatcher Roberts (Executive Director) traveled to the Philippines to meet with project partners, to discuss the project ideas and to solidify our approach to implementation.

July 2003

  •       Ms. Lori Jones and Dr. Annette Stark (Canadian Consultant) conducted a mission to the Philippines the second week of July to review the preliminary results of the scan and to begin planning the development of training activities.

 October-November 2003

  •       The Philippines Health Equity Reform project's local partners held a workshop at the Canadian Conference on International Health in October in Ottawa.  This workshop profiled strategies/approaches and methodologies used in the Convergence Approach to HSRA and CSIH’s initiative in supporting this program through its project. The workshop tried to reach a broad consensus on how the HSRA –HER strategies can contribute to influencing a global agenda focusing on the “right to health”.   (See project materials section for PowerPoint Presentation).

 November – December 2003

  •       Ms. Lori Jones and Ms. Janet Hatcher Roberts participated  in a third mission to the Philippines end of November which focused on the first set of "training workshops" related to population health and health equity with our pilot site region in the Philippines. (See project materials section for PowerPoint Presentation).

Environmental Scan

  •       Our local partner, the Gerry Roxas Foundation (GRF), has undertaken an environmental scan to provide us with a snapshot of the way the current system of allocating resources for health in the province of Capiz works. It addresses such key issues as sources and flow of health sector resources, what decision-making criteria are being used and who has what capacity, as well as the socio-economic and epidemiological profile of the province.

Project Pilot Site

  •       Activities are currently being set-up for the project’s pilot site and additional training should commence in March (review of determinants of health in relation to existing data sources in the Philippines). Additional training on health planning processes and community involvement is being planned for late June. We are also looking at ways to collaborate with a World Bank Health Reform Project being implemented in the same Province.

 Project Advisory Committee

  •       A project Advisory Committee has been convened and meets quarterly by teleconference. The list of Advisory Committee members is found in the Project Team portion of the project web site.

 Internships

  • Until March 2004 the project had two Netcorps Interns in the Philippines.  The interns will assist our local partner, GRF, to develop data and information systems that will facilitate the organization, archiving, and retrieval of health equity-related data that will be gathered and generated in the course of implementing the project. Secondly, the interns will work with GIS Center in the Provincial Governor’s office to develop special applications of GIS for health equity reform work. Thirdly, as the project envisions GRF becoming a resource center and information clearing house for promoting health equity in the Philippines, the interns will assist with the development of a website where the project can post all relevant information, lessons learned, best practices, etc. related to health equity, as well as with the setting up of other IT systems for the GRF Center for Information and Communication.  ( Visit CSIH’s main webpage for more information on Internships).

     Two new Netcorps Interns were with the project from August to January 2004.  They continued to support our local partner, GRF in various activities and took on new data collection tasks based on recommendations in the July 2004 conference

June- July 2004

·         Ms. Lori Jones (Project Director), Ms. Janet Hatcher Roberts (Executive Director), Dr. Geoffrey Dunkley (Canadian Consultant) and Ms. Finola Shankar (Project Assistant) participated  in a fourth mission to the Philippines.  This mission included an administrative audit of the local partner, GRF, field visits to health service providers in the project area, and training activities.  

·         Training included two days of Training the Trainer (TOT) with GRF staff and local professionals.  After learning more about concepts of health equity and planning, these trainers facilitated the break-out sessions in a conference that was held on the following two days.

·         A two day conference, “Training on Decision Making Support Tools for Local Health Planning and Resource Allocation,” was held at the Gerry Roxas Foundation Resource and Convention Centre.  (See project materials section for PowerPoint Presentations that are in PDF format).

 

September - October 2004 

  • Dr. Geoffrey Dunkley (Canadian Consultant) traveled to the Philippines to conduct on-site training in Pontevedra and President Roxas.

  • This mission included data collection and analysis, a Train the Trainer (TOT) session and two day Municipal Health Planning Workshops in Pontevedra on September 7th and 8th, 2004 and in President Roxas on September 9th and 10th, 2004.

  • Dr. Dunkley presented local data at the workshop sessions and was present as a resource person.  The majority of the sessions were conducted in Ilongo (the local language) and were facilitated and led by the GRF HER project team and trainers. (see project materials section)

  • Agnes Villarruz, the Executive Director of the Gerry Roxas Foundation, traveled to Canada where she attended an Advocacy and Networking Certificate Course at the Coady International Institute. 

  • After her course at the Coady International Institute, Agnes Villarruz spent October 2 to 7th in Ottawa with CSIH.  During this visit several activities took place:

1)  Project planning, updating and report writing was done;
2)  The Philippine Ambassador in Ottawa, Francisco Benedicto, was updated on project progress and;
3) CSIH and GRF made a presentation at the HPN Seminar Series at CIDA about the HER project.

 

November – December 2004 

  • Dr. Geoffrey Dunkley (Canadian Consultant) traveled to the Philippines to conduct on-site training in Maayon and Pilar.

  • This mission included a Train the Trainer (TOT) session and two day Municipal Health Planning Workshops in Maayon on November 25th and 26th, 2004 and in Pilar on December 2nd and 3rd, 2004.

  • Dr. Dunkley presented local data at the workshop sessions and was present as a resource person.  The majority of the sessions, as in the September workshops, were conducted in Ilongo (the local language) and were facilitated and led by the GRF HER project team and trainers. (see project materials section)

  • The HER team initiated work on the Community Monitoring Board component of the project. 

January – February 2005

  • In January, the HER team conducted workshops in each municipality of the pilot site to train barangay health workers and midwives on how to conduct the surveys for data collection for the Community Monitoring Boards.  The surveys were conducted in February.

  • Agnes Q. Villarruz led two Advocacy and Networking Workshops at the GRF Resource Centre for selected barangay health workers and midwives from Pontevedra and Pilar (February 16th) and Maayon and President Roxas (February 17th).  At community assemblies later in the month, participants pledged a commitment to work as Health Equity Reform Advocates (HERAs) in their barangays and municipalities.

  • The HER project was presented to the Regional Development Council (RDC) on February 18th and to the Alliance of Northern Iloilo for Health and Development (ANIHEAD) on February 23rd.  Lori Jones and Janet Hatcher Roberts from CSIH participated in these presentations with Agnes Villarruz and the continuation and expansion of the HER project was endorsed by both the RDC and ANIHEAD.

  • 6 computers and printers were presented to the Rural Health Units in the pilot municipalities.  These computers will be used in relation to the data collected for the 115 Community Monitoring Boards that were also presented to the pilot municipalities for data tracking and analysis at the barangay and municipal level.  The HER team was accompanied by Lori Jones and Janet Hatcher Roberts at the community assemblies in each of the 4 municipalities where turnover took place.

March-April 2005

  • Curtis Mehwort completed the construction of a database for Community Data Boards in Visual Basic.NET in conjunction with an Access Database and Crystal Report Library.

  •  Surveys for data collection for the Community Data Boards were completed

  • Hands on computer and software training workshops were conducted by HER team project staff and Kevin Brown for selected midwives and nurses.

  • Selected rural health midwives from baranagays in the pilot municipalities were trained as facilitators to increase participation and help with the facilitation of Barangay Health Planning Workshop

  •  Dr. Geoffrey Dunkley traveled to the Philippines to work with GRF on the content and process of the Barangay and Municipal Health Planning Workshops among other activities.  He also worked with Kevin Brown to fine tune the information in the Community Data Boards Database and met with medical health officers of the Bialan Interlocal Health Zone at the Bialan Hospital to review the contents of the CDB database

  • Barangay Health Planning Workshops were conducted in Pontevedra and coaching on barangay health plans with smaller groups was conducted.

May 2005

  • In May Lori Jones and Janet Hatcher Roberts traveled to the Philippines to the project site to participate in several activities.  Jacques Girard, the chair of the Advisory Committee, and Josette Castel, a family physician and primary health care specialist, also visited the project site and participated in several activities.

  • Activities included a Municipal Health Planning workshop in Pontevedra and a High level Advocacy and Networking workshop.

  • These activities were planned to coincide with a visit from the Technical Cooperation Group, a group from the Department of Health which was interested in learning more about the HER project after the project was presented and endorsed at one of their meetings.  Representatives from the Canadian International Development Agency, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union and the Provincial Health Office also joined the delegation.

  •  Other project activities this month have included the Training of Facilitators and the continuation of Barangay Health Planning Workshops.

June – July 2005

  • In June the Barangay Health Planning Workshops were completed in the pilot site.  These workshops were led by GRF trainers with the assistance of facilitators from the barangays who were trained by GRF.

  • The Municipal Health Planning Workshops, also led by GRF with the assistance of local facilitators, were completed in July.

  • Geoffrey Dunkley traveled to the Philippines to work with GRF on the consolidation of municipal plans into a single interlocal health zone plan in preparation for the upcoming Interlocal Health Planning Workshop.

  • Dr. Dunkley also participated in a 3 day Training of Trainers for ANIHEAD (Alliance of Northern Iloilo for Health and Development) and made a HER Project presentation to the League of Municipalities.  The League of Municipalities endorsed the replication of the project.

  • Dr. Dunkley also assisted GRF with funding proposals for small scale replication of the project.  These proposals were requested by the Bureau of Local Health and Development of the Department of Health and the European Community local grants program.

  • Meetings were conducted with Dr. Punsalan of the Provincial Health Office and Dr. Ramos of the Department of Health in Iloilo.

  • An internal process evaluation of the HER project was initiated and is being led by two consultants, Dr. Paradas and Dr. Panelo.

  • Ashley Johns, a Master’s Student in Health Studies at the University of Waterloo, joined CSIH to help with HER Project wrap up.

 

 

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