Guinea

Action for West Africa Region (AWARE)-Reproductive Health

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AWARE works with West African regional health institutions and networks with potential for becoming local leaders in expanding and improving health services across the region, and in creating a regional response to reproductive health and HIV & AIDS issues as an alternative to country-by-country solutions.

AWARE works with selected regional health institutions to facilitate development of a network of Regional Technical Leadership Institutions. The project aims to strengthen these institutions through enhanced strategic planning, leadership development, and application of regional best practices in reproductive health and HIV & AIDS-each contributing to improved quality of family planning, reproductive health, infectious diseases and child survival services. By mobilizing social and donor capital and improving institutional effectiveness, the AWARE project aims to develop regional capacity and management expertise at local institutions, thus enabling advocacy for needed health policies that can reach all countries in the region.

MSH is a subcontractor responsible for the child survival, institutional capacity and regional commodity planning elements of the project. MSH is partnering with EngenderHealth, Abt Associates, and AED on the AWARE project.

AWARE works with selected regional health institutions in Guinea to facilitate the development of a network of Regional Technical Leadership Institutions. The project aims to strengthen these institutions through enhanced strategic planning, leadership development, and application of regional best practices in reproductive health and HIV/AIDS—each contributing to improved quality of family planning, reproductive health, infectious diseases, and child survival services. By mobilizing social and donor capital and improving effectiveness, the AWARE project aims to develop regional capacity and management expertise at local institutions, thus enabling advocacy for needed health policies that can reach all countries in the region of West Africa.

Pour Renforcer les Interventions en Sante Reproductive et MST/SIDA (PRISM II)

A follow-on project to the first PRISM, PRISM II provides the Ministry of Public Health with specialized technical assistance to integrate primary health care services and reproductive health into the country's national health care system. PRISM launched a leadership initiative in April 2002 with two Leadership Dialogue meetings in Conakry in collaboration with the MSH Management and Leadership Program.

Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus Program

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RPM Plus works in more than 40 developing countries to provide technical assistance to strengthen pharmaceutical and health commodity management systems. The program works to improve the availability and use of quality medicines, supplies, and basic medical equipment in the public and private sectors and to promote practical, sustainable changes in pharmaceuticals management by developing capacity within cooperating countries and fostering collaboration between countries.

RPM Plus staff and consultants work within developing countries as well as with regional and global initiatives to provide technical leadership and to develop and apply tools for improving drug management at all levels. Using the Drug Management for Childhood Illness indicator-based tool (DCMI) developed by RPM Plus, a study collected baseline measurements of availability and use of drugs for childhood illness in Guinea. The study worked in collaboration with BASICS and PRISM, and acquired the necessary data for the implementation of DMCI in the country.

Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS)

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As a technical assistance partner for newborn and child health to the USAID Bureau for Global Health, the Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS) Project develops and implements strategies to reduce preventable infant and childhood deaths in the developing world. MSH works as a partner in BASICS, which began its third phase in October 2004. Under this indefinite quantity contract (IQC), BASICS assists USAID/Washington Bureaus, USAID field missions, host-country governments, donor agencies, NGOs, PVOs, research institutions, and the private sector to scale up and increase the use of newborn and child health and nutrition interventions by families, communities, and health systems.

Since 1993, BASICS has worked to achieve substantial improvements in coverage and to expand effective newborn and child health interventions. BASICS focus areas include newborn health, essential nutrition actions like vitamin A supplementation, immunization, integrated management of childhood illness, treatment of diarrhea and pneumonia, and malaria control. In addition to strengthening the delivery of basic newborn and child health services, BASICS has expanded its technical scope to include pediatric HIV & AIDS, birth spacing, and child survival and nutrition in complex humanitarian crises. BASICS areas of expertise include assistance to countries on comprehensive strategies or selected interventions for newborn and child health, building partnerships, delivery of quality newborn and child health services, community-based treatment and private sector approaches to expand access to services, and capacity building and training.

UNICEF/USAID Joint Equity Initiative

The Joint Equity Initiative, part of Family Planning Management Development, developed appropriate policies and strategies to ensure access to quality health services by the poor. The program looked at the effectiveness of user fees for health services and found that while user fees are a means to finance health services through private sources, they create financial burdens on individuals needing care.

Pour Renforcer les Interventions en Sante Reproductive et MST/SIDA (PRISM)

Starting in 1998, a long-term team of MSH advisors based in two regions of Guinea helped Guinean health authorities implement and strengthen Guinea's decentralized health services. MSH worked with regional, district, and community partners to improve access to and quality of reproductive health, maternal and child health, and HIV/AIDS services. Innovative approaches to adult education, on-the-job training, and management increased the use of family planning and of condoms for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. By the end of 2002, the contraceptive prevalence rate in MSH's target area was 6.5 percent compared to 2.9 percent in 1999. Additionally, in the face of the burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic, MSH's efforts in HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention and care resulted in 72 percent of youth knowing that condom use can help prevent HIV infection. Furthermore, STI care became available in 53 percent of health centers in Haute Guinée; no health centers in Haute Guinée offered STI care before the PRISM project.