Partnership for the Community Management of Child Health (Partenariat pour la Prise en Charge Communautaire de la Santé Infantile Prise-C)

Overview

URC's non-profit affiliate, the Center for Human Services (CHS), is working with local partner CEID to strengthen and accelerate delivery of proven, low-cost child health interventions in three health zones in two Beninese departments (Zou-Collines and Atlantique.)

The project is developing, testing, and implementing innovative strategies to strengthen the health system workforce and community health systems. The project team is exploring the effects of financial and non-financial incentives in enhancing the performance, engagement, and retention of community health workers providing child health services. The project will annually reach an estimated 145,000 children under five.

Key Activities

• Promote healthy communities by liaising with community leaders to develop action plans that not only guide community-based activities but also enable measuring progress
• Promote the renewal of memberships in community-based health insurance schemes (mutuelles) to lower the cost of health care
• Enhance the knowledge and skills of health provider teams through training and supportive supervision
• Provide supervision and on-the-job tutoring/coaching of community health workers to improve community-based management of childhood illness and healthy behaviors
• Implement a community-level improvement collaborative to improve community health workers' performance and retention
• Improve processes and tools to reinforce the referral and counter-referral system
• Develop, test, and implement cell phone technologies for communication between community health workers and their supervisors to improve performance, engagement, and patient outcomes.

Achievements

The project has:

• Completed its baseline survey
• Submitted an implementation plan and operations research concept paper to USAID
• Held zonal level meetings with stakeholders (MOH staff, local government, and community members) to inform them of the development of the project’s implementation plan
• Spearheaded the organization of a Ministry-level committee to provide technical support to Prise-C and other projects