Leadership, Management & Governance: Our Impact

Located in northern Uganda, Reproductive Health Uganda’s (RHU) Gulu Branch Health Center (Gulu) is one of the busiest clinics in the country—serving over 25,000 clients with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services per month. When demand for SRH services outpaced Gulu’s supply of sexually transmitted infection (STI) drugs and other essential medicines, the clinic could not continue offering essential SRH services to many who needed them, threatening the equitable access to health care in the community.

Strong leadership and management are important factors in the delivery of quality health services, efficient use of resources, and achievement of positive health outcomes.

Leadership Development Program Plus (LDP+) leads to dramatic rise in antenatal care visits “I was both aware of the challenges that existed and frustrated at not being able to meet them,” said Charlotte Abroman, midwife at the Kongoti Center for Rural Health, discussing low antenatal clinic visit rates. In Côte d’Ivoire as a whole, 70 percent of pregnant women attend all four ANC visits, but in Abroman’s area of Kongoti, only 11 percent made all the visits. In the health district of Daoukro, which includes Kongoti and other towns, the rate was 24 percent.

Dr. Ihsanullah Shahir, Director General of Human Resources within Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health, began work as a young doctor in mountainous Bamyan province during what he calls “an emergency situation during the war.” In 2004, Shahir became the Provincial Health Director in Bamyan Province. I had limited knowledge, but I got help from colleagues. We established everything from zero. Shahir and his colleagues worked to ensure coverage of the Basic Package of Health Services.