On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck with a massive level 7.0 earthquake. The devastation was immense—thousands died and a million and a half lost their homes. MSH's Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) project in Haiti is already distributing medicines, including antiretrovirals, and staff from our SDSH (Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d'Haïti Project—Pwojé Djanm) and Leadership, Management, and Sustainability Program are supporting several committees created by the Ministry of Health to coordinate health efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake. MSH has created the MSH Haiti Fund to support the essential needs of our colleagues in Haiti so they can continue their lifesaving mission of building Haiti’s health care system and continue providing relief to the Haitian people. To donate, click on the "donate" button to the right.
Political instability and abject poverty for 80 percent of Haiti's population make Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and leave most Haitians with limited or often completely unavailable health care. HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are both major concerns in addition to the standard range of primary health care needs. Inadequate nutrition and a lack of access to safe water also contribute to health concerns on this western third of the island of Hispaniola. MSH first responded to the situation in Haiti in 1980 and today continues to help Haiti develop self-sufficient comprehensive health services.
Experience in this Country
- Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haïti (SDSH) — Pwojè Djanm 2007–2012
- Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Program 2005–2010
- Supply Chain Management System Project 2006–2008
- Haiti Health Systems 2007 (HS-2007) Project 2004–2007
- Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus Program 2000–2008
- Management and Leadership Program 2000–2005
- Haiti Health Systems 2004 (HS-2004) 1995–2005
- Rural Health Delivery System (RHDS) Project 1980–1986
Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haïti (SDSH) — Pwojè Djanm
2007–2012MSH’s Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haïti (SDSH) Project—known as Pwojé Djanm (“robust project”) in Creole—and its all-Haitian team are working to increase availability of essential social services, reduce internal conflict, enable productive livelihoods that contribute to Haiti’s economic development, and build capacity as the foundation for progress.
MSH and its partners will continue to support local service delivery NGOs by using performance-based contracts, a proven way to reinforce innovation and accountability; these NGOs will go on to become additional sources of technical assistance. Pwojé Djanm's focus is on supporting decentralization, strengthening public-sector capacity in service delivery, and supporting local NGO service delivery by leveraging funding from the commercial sector and other donors.
Pwojé Djanm is an MSH-led collaboration of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communications Programs (CCP), AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), JHPIEGO, and Fondation pour la Santé Reproductrice et l’Education Familiale (FOSREF) with USAID, the Government of Haiti, local NGOs, community leaders, and the commercial private sector. Together, MSH and its partners will use improvements in the health sector as a catalyst for greater social and political stability.
Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Program
2005–2010The Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Program develops managers and leaders who achieve results in the areas of reproductive health, HIV & AIDS, infectious disease, and maternal and child health. LMS works with health organizations in the public and private sectors to create sustainable programs and systems through improved leadership and management. By strengthening management systems and increasing system-wide leadership, LMS improves the performance of health care organizations at all levels, develops human resources, and builds the capacity to anticipate and respond effectively to changing external environments.
Supply Chain Management System Project
2006–2008SCMS (the Supply Chain Management System) supplies lifesaving medicines to HIV & AIDS programs around the world and is led by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (a nonprofit organization established by MSH and JSI). The 17 SCMS international partners are hands-on and actively work to strengthen supply chains, enabling the scale-up of HIV & AIDS treatment in developing countries. SCMS is funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to help deliver an uninterrupted supply of high-quality, affordable products including: antiretroviral drugs; drugs to treat opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis; and drugs and supplies for palliative and home-based care, HIV rapid test kits, and laboratory equipment. The project focuses on improving forecasting (to determine what drugs are really needed), aggregating demand and negotiating lower prices, and bringing the delivery mechanism closer to the point of use through regional warehouses. SCMS can work anywhere in the world, but is initially focused on the 15 Emergency Plan focus countries.
Haiti Health Systems 2007 (HS-2007) Project
2004–2007HS-2007 is a follow-on project for the successful HS-2004. The project plans to further move Haiti from a FBO/NGO-dependent system to a balanced national system through fair access to basic reproductive, maternal, and child health services, and reduction in the transmission of infectious diseases. MSH will also work with the departmental leadership to establish integrated service networks in each department (drawing on both public and private service providers), with the goal of expanding access to quality health services to the underserved population.
Service statistics in the areas of Haiti not reached by HS 2004 are discouraging. The new HS 2007 project specifically targets expansion into these underserved areas with the help of the public sector and local nongovernmental (NGO) and faith based organizations (FBO).
The HS 2007 team has a defined mandate to use performance-based approaches to support capacity development in Haiti to provide HIV/AIDS services (VCT/ PMTCT/ART). MSH staff serve as technical advisors to: nongovernmental and faith based organizations, and to the Haitian Ministry of Health Unit of Control & Coordination (UCC) /National Program to Combat HIV/AIDS, and coordinates the implementation of the US-funded President's Emergency Plan program in Haiti (which will invest approximately $40 million in Haiti in 2005).
HS 2007 continues to provide reproductive and child health services to the people of Haiti, along with expanding the programmatic treatment and controlled transmission of TB and HIV/AIDS. Building on what was accomplished in HS 2004, MSH is helping Haiti develop and expand health service capacity so that Haitian families and communities can benefit from an available and integrated package of health services that are of consistent high quality-delivered in a sustainable, affordable, and cost efficient manner.
Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus Program
2000–2008MSH provided technical guidance and assists in strategy development and program implementation both in improving the availability of safe, effective health commodities of assured quality and cost—pharmaceuticals, laboratory diagnostics, vaccines, supplies, and basic medical equipment—and in promoting the appropriate use of these commodities in the public and private sectors at the community level, with special focus on managing pharmaceuticals essential for maternal, newborn, and child health.
The RPM Plus Program collaborated with USAID/Haiti through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to support the Government of Haiti in reinforcing and extending HIV/AIDS services, including voluntary testing and counseling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and antiretroviral therapy (ART). The goal was to extend these services to approximately eighty selected centers in ten geographical departments by the year 2007. However, increasing availability and access to essential medicines, including antiretroviral medicines, remains a challenge in Haiti, where resources allocated to the public pharmaceutical sector are limited and not often used appropriately.
RPM Plus collaborated with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to identify interventions and mechanisms necessary to deliver a minimum package of health services, including ART. Areas in which RPM Plus provided technical assistance include:
- training in pharmaceutical management;
- procurement of medicines while building local capacity in quantification;
- distribution of health commodities to selected health care facilities; and
- reinforcement of the pharmaceutical management information system.
Additionally, as part of an effort to expand the internationally recommended tuberculosis control strategy (directly observed treatment, short-course, or DOTS) throughout Haiti, RPM Plus has worked with WHO's Global Drug Facility to assess the country's pharmaceutical management system for tuberculosis medicines and to address identified problems.
Management and Leadership Program
2000–2005The M&L Program was designed to improve the performance of leaders, managers, and organizational management systems, and improve organizations' ability to anticipate and respond effectively to the changing external environment. Working with public, private, and nongovernmental organizations at all levels of the health sector, M&L strengthened individual employee, organization, and national program performance. These improvements contributed significantly to the delivery of high-quality health services.
Haiti Health Systems 2004 (HS-2004)
1995–2005Running nine years, HS-2004 targeted vulnerable populations in Haiti to provide equal access to primary and reproductive health services. Additionally, the program developed health services to be more self-sufficient and eventually sustainable without the influence of NGOs. Achievements of the expansive program include expanding access to quality health services through the network of 32 NGOs and FBOs to over 3 million people, reaching, within this population 90 percent immunization rate, 11 percent increase in contraceptive use after the first phase of the program, 17 percent increase in "three plus" prenatal visits after phase one, and 16 percent increase in attended deliveries after phase one. Thousands of service providers were trained in clinical and management topics, a Haitian network of trainers was established, as was an independent consortium to support short-term training needs in health over the long term.
Rural Health Delivery System (RHDS) Project
1980–1986MSH was contracted in 1980 by USAID for the RHDS project. RHDS aimed to extend access to health care for 4 million rural Haitians—from 10 to 15 percent to 70 percent. The program improved all levels of the health delivery system through improved transport, development of information systems, a community-based pharmacy system, personnel management, and extensive training of health workers at all levels.
