“The Ghana Essential Health Intervention Project”
Grantee Institution:
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Team Leaders:
- James F. Phillips, Ph.D.
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
- John Koku Awoonor-Williams, M.D., M.P.H.
Ghana Health Service
Project Summary:
In recent years, Ghana has been at the forefront of health systems development in Africa. In 1998, the Ghana Health Service launched the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative to scale up the Navrongo Experiment, Africa’s first confirmed demonstration that Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 are attainable at the district level. The Navrongo Experiment showed a 68 percent reduction in childhood mortality and a 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality through the mobilization of rural villages to develop systems for community-based primary health care, Despite this success, a variety of service delivery, manpower, communication, logistics, resource management, and leadership bottlenecks have constrained the pace of CHPS scale up.
Through a partnership with Tanzania, the Ghana Health Service aims to address some of the district health leadership and planning issues using tools developed under the Tanzania Essential Health Intervention Project (TEHIP) in the 1990s. These district planning tools, and resource allocation and mobilization strategies enabled Tanzania to be the first African country to be on target for achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4.
The Ghana Health Service has redeveloped the TEHIP system into a new system, known as the District Health Implementation and Reporting Toolkit (DiHPART). This tool is now being implemented in conjunction with leadership training and comprehensive health systems review and strengthening, as part of the Ghana Essential Health Interventions Project (GEHIP). Three of Ghana’s most impoverished rural districts will be developed as model health systems demonstration zones. A fourth GEHIP district is located in the Greater Accra Region in an urban district where informal settlements are rapidly expanding and where health systems strategic planning is urgently needed.
Evaluation of the GEHIP project will assess the MDG impact of assembling a comprehensive package of proven interventions for strengthening health systems. The international collaboration with Tanzania will demonstrate a new paradigm for African countries to assist one another with achieving the health MDGs.
Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Nurse with patients