With significant breakthroughs in health care and medicine in the past decades, we have the knowledge and practices needed to save millions of lives and reduce illness and suffering around the world. However, the results have been slow in coming. The primary limiting factor in applying this knowledge is effective leadership and efficient management. The LMS Program develops leadership and management skills of teams at all levels of health care organizations and programs to effectively address change and improve health outcomes in the areas of family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, infectious disease, and maternal and child health. LMS works with public- and private-sector health organizations to develop sustainable programs and systems to ensure health investments—and the results they deliver—are sustainable after original funding diminishes or concludes.

Maximize Results

Simply investing additional funds in vaccines, health services, and hiring more personnel does not guarantee improved health care results. Managers at all levels must be capable of leading teams to improve health outcomes by:

• improving the quality of care and services
• increasing access to services
• ensuring sustainability

Become Transparent and Accountable

With improved management processes, including sound financial systems, health programs and organizations can become more accountable. Also, a focus on building the capacity of work teams, rather than just individuals, results in increased organizational transparency. This strengthens the efficiency of institutional investments (both governmental and non-governmental) in the social sector and enables the forging of public/private alliances.

Achieve Sustainability

With strengthened leadership and management skills, people are inspired, motivated, and committed to use their existing resources to find solutions to existing and new health challenges. Through the use of proven tools and approaches, such as the Management and Organizational Sustainability Tool and Business Planning for Health program, processes that enable managers to assess their organization's management capacity and make concrete plans for improvement, LMS enables organizations to strengthen their resource management and financial systems, thereby improving their cost recovery.