What Haiti Teaches Us About Aid Effectiveness and Coordination, A Letter from Dr. Elvira:
Haiti is a perfect scenario to help us learn about aid effectiveness and coordination. This article about important high-level talks about the development agenda in Haiti reminded me of my last visit to Haiti about a couple of years ago. There were lots of problems with lack of quality and access to health services, but there were also examples of “positive deviance,” like the health center in the photo above. Let me point out that my visit was unannounced. Here is a question for you: What outcomes do you think Haiti would achieve if the country and its donors and all stakeholders focused on replicating existing good models of healthcare?
Aid coordination is essential for recipient countries to use aid effectively and for donors to ensure maximum sustainable impact and return on the investment. The goal of all health aid is to empower the country’s government and non-government actors to strengthen their performance in the country’s public and private health sector (for-profit and non-profit providers).
What can a country such as Haiti do to coordinate aid for effective results and improve health outcomes through a better performing health sector? The answer is simple, though not easy. Coordinating the aid from hundreds of donors and organizations to meet common goals of improving healthcare is not easy but it can be done by progressively developing the Haitian health system to become self-reliant and sustainable. The UN agencies mentioned in the article along with the Government of Haiti must do the following to coordinate the work of all partners, stakeholders and donors and succeed in their plans to make “positive deviants” the rule:
- Haiti needs a long term development plan for the health sector. This plan must include a national plan to progressively develop the health system and its infrastructure. (Haiti as 10.5 million people and will have 12.5 million by 2030). This plan must include the main goals and targets of SDG3 and other relevant targets. In doing so, increase the number of the number of health facilities that are able to deliver quality health services by 10% per year, and manage community health programs to meet those goals and targets consistently, according to quality standards.
- Every one of the ten departments of Haiti must organize a meeting (each participating agency and organization will pay their share to fund this meeting) with every organization active in their department to adapt the national plan to their unique situation and resources, and develop a departmental plan to progressively develop the health system in the department. This plan must include the responsibilities and commitments of each organization and donor to ensure that all citizens are covered by primary health care services.
- Monthly reporting of progress and commitments must be entered into an online national monitoring database that is linked to the national health information system and can keep track of the national and departmental plans. It should monitor health outcomes and produce reports and scorecards showing the participation of each partner and organization.
To learn more about RGH’s planning and coordination approach and tools as well as the web-based monitoring system, please contact RGH at info@realizingglobalhealth.com to set up a call with one of our experts.
