It gives us great pleasure to announce to you the winners of the

2007 Leadership & Management Award!

This is the first award provided by the LMS Program and we plan to make this an annual event. The focus is on teams, in developing countries, who apply effective leadership and management practices to overcome challenges and improve health outcomes. This first year, applicants were invited from members of LeaderNet. Next year we will be opening the award up to any applicants who work in the focus area mentioned above.

Congratulations to our first place winner!

Department of Health, Center for Health Development-Bicol, Legazpi City, Philippines

The Quality Improvement Team of the Department for Health-Bicol decreased essential drug stock-outs from 67% to 30% from June 2005 to August 2006 at the village level in their catchment area. After participating in the Field Management Training Program (FMTP), offered by the Philippine Department of Health in partnership with the Sustainable Management Development Program of the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the team developed and implemented an action plan that involved: capacity building in stock monitoring and quality for village drugstore operators; lobbying with DOH management regarding maximizing funds for drugs; pooling orders by clustering procurement by village drugstores; reducing processing time of village drugstores requests by introducing a more simplified process; and networking and linking with stakeholders. Teamwork played a vital role in the implementation of the team’s action plan. Members of the region's village drugstore program became members of the Quality Improvement Team and the group met regularly to evaluate progress. The mission of the Quality Improvement Team is to “Make available low cost, quality drugs and medicines to a great number of people.” They have made significant progress in their community towards fulfilling this mission and are an inspiration to all of us.

We would also like to congratulate the second place winner:

Healthy Communities & Municipalities, Perú

The objective of the USAID-funded Healthy Communities and Municipalities project is to improve maternal, child, and peri-natal health of communities signed on to coca-eradication agreements, areas traditionally abandoned both by government and private investment. In 2006, the project and all its staff was moved under MSH management. At its core, the project provides people with the means to better control their own health, by improving “health determinants” (latrines, housing conditions, children’s parks, etc.) within participating communities. Promoting multi-sectoral interventions and active participation of the community is a key element in establishing sustainable, improved health conditions. To aid in the challenge of transitioning to MSH, several teams from the project participated in MSH’s Virtual Leadership Development Program, to strengthen both their internal knowledge of leadership and management, and to be better able to strengthen the leadership capacity in the communities. By its third year, the project has benefited 37,500 families from 557 communities across 61 districts, including improvements at 260 health facilities and 367 schools.

Congratulations also to the third place winner:

Aswan Health Directorate, Egypt

The Aswan Health Directorate took part in a pilot leadership development project with MSH during 2002-2003 to improve the quality and accessibility of health services, with a focus on family planning and reproductive health, in three districts by: increasing the capability of managers to lead others to achieve results, and improving the ability of managers to create climates of high performance in their workplaces. Forty-one participants from 10 teams took part in the program in the form of two-day workshops held regularly over one year. Following the program, the 10 teams all reported improvements in the 12 major health indicators they monitored. When donor priorities shifted following the pilot project, the Aswan Health Directorate decided to continue to implement the program and expand it within the Governorate using its own resources and with minimal follow-up support from MSH. By 2005, the program had expanded to cover all 185 health facilities in the Governorate and teams continued to produce significant results. For example, in 2005 the Governorate’s teams decided to reduce maternal mortality by 30%. As of the end of 2006, the teams had achieved a nearly 40 percentage point decrease in maternal deaths, from 86.9/100,000 to 50/100,000.

You can read more about our winners and the Leadership and Management Award by visiting the Award page on LeaderNet