In Sudan, decades of ongoing conflict and brutal civil war, debilitating droughts, and reliance on subsistence farming have impoverished the majority of those who have managed to survive. Shifting refugee populations have experienced a persistence of malaria, dysentery, and tuberculosis resulting from malnutrition, particularly in the rural areas of Southern Sudan. Among the relatively stable—for now—peri-urban and urban populations, AIDS has steadily increased. A scarcity of trained health care professionals and the absence of adequate facilities have left Southern Sudan with the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world. The fragile health care infrastructure throughout Sudan lacks the capacity to provide vaccines, life-saving drugs, and basic medical supplies that would curb most preventable diseases. Since 2005, MSH has strived to tackle the malaria problem by providing technical assistance to scale up interventions and efficiently manage pharmaceutical resources. More generally, MSH plans to focus on strengthening health care delivery systems and developing a stable, skilled health care workforce, especially within Southern Sudan's displaced populations. The goal is to enable leadership development by providing managers with the means and training to build sustainable teams. A community-based workforce would provide refugee populations with firm roots and engender positive interactions, while ensuring the delivery of fundamental health care services to individuals. Healing a people means working to build effective, nurturing relationships that will promote the health and stability of individuals, families, and communities.
Experience in this Country
- Sudan Health Transformation Project (SHTP II) 2009–2012
- Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Program 2007–2012
- Capacity Project 2004–2009
- Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus Program 2000–2008
- Advance Africa 2002–2004
Sudan Health Transformation Project (SHTP II)
2009–2012In the second phase of the Sudan Health Transformation Project (SHTP II), MSH is transitioning health service delivery from relief to development. Specifically, SHTP II is expanding access and coverage by:
- enhancing quality of health services through an integrated package of high-impact services;
- increasing demand through community mobilization;
- engendering the community’s confidence in health services through strengthening of County Health Departments (CHDs) and the MOH.
MSH, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, is working alongside as many as 12 international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) responsible for delivering primary health services in a target county. The goal is to establish fully functional service delivery points (FFSDP) with coverage of 80 percent of the catchment population in 12 focus counties within three years.
Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Program
2007–2012Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems is a follow-on to the Rational Pharmaceutical Management (RPM) Plus Program. MSH is pleased to announce that the US Agency for International Development has awarded us the Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement. SPS will focus on four key results:
- Improve governance in the pharmaceutical sector
- Strengthen pharmaceutical management systems to support public health services
- Contain the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance
- Expand access to and improved use of essential medicines
- BroadReach Healthcare
- Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network
- The Lewin Group
- LMI Government Consulting
- University of Washington Department of Global Health
- WHO Collaborating Center in Pharmaceutical Policy: Harvard University/Boston University
- African Medical and Research Foundation
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
- Euro Health Group
- Infectious Disease Institute at Makerere University
- Joint Commission International
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Capacity Project
2004–2009As a partner with IH on the Capacity Project, MSH undertook three main activities to strengthen the Human Resources for Health capacity of Southern Sudan by:
- Supporting the Human Resources Director of the Ministry of Health to develop a Human Resources for Health Strategy through a baseline assessment of the human resource management needs and a strategy development workshop
- Developing leadership skills through implementation of the Leadership Development Program throughout the county
- Finalizing a set of personnel policies and producing a Personnel Policy Manual for the MOH
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.
Advance Africa
2002–2004Advance Africa was a family planning/reproductive health service delivery project designed to increase access to and improve the quality of clinical and nonclinical programs in sub-Saharan Africa. The project worked to increase capacity for informed decision-making by clients and communities, and for the public sector to sustain quality family planning/reproductive health service delivery programs. Advance Africa also worked with USAID missions to scale up existing efforts by closing gaps in service delivery, and building partnerships among public and private health and nonhealth organizations. The project implemented innovative approaches to revitalize family planning programs within the broad context of Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. MSH was the prime of a consortium of six international organizations that managed implementation of the Advance Africa project.
