The LMS Program in Nicaragua called PRONICASS works in partnership with public and private organizations to improve social services. Though Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and many of its health indicators are low, there are substantial, multisectoral efforts occurring within the country to improve both access to and quality of the country’s health and educations services. A central challenge in Nicaragua is the lack of organization of the available resources dedicated to social service programs. The result is an often inefficient and ineffective use of these limited resources.

EXPERIENCE IN COUNTRY

• PRONICASS
• Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Activities in Nicaragua
• The Management and Leadership Program

PRONICASS

LMS is implementing a large and complex program in Nicaragua called PRONICASS—Nicaragua Social Sector Reform Program. The project, which began in September 2005, is working to improve Nicaraguans’ health, education and welfare services by collaborating with the country’s social sector ministries. Efforts are focused on streamlining administrative processes, institutionalizing systems and norms, and strengthening budget planning to maximize resources. The project’s emphasis lies in the concept of planning and budgeting based on results. This concept urges organizations to clearly connect results to investment thus facilitating transparency by closely linking spending with measurable outputs. A second element of the program is participatory planning. Citizens are integrally involved and are encouraged to fully understand what is being accomplished and with what resources it is being done.

• Profamilia: Planning for Success
• Business Planning for Health within Municipalities
  
• Improving Institutional Efficiency within MiFamilia
  

Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Activities in Nicaragua

LMS was requested by the USAID Mission in Nicaragua to provide technical assistance to rapidly strengthen management of all Global Fund projects being implemented in the country.  Management development assistance was required to ensure compliance with terms of existing projects. The project specifically called for strengthening the management and improving the communication of the Country Coordinating Mechanism as well as clarifying its internal roles and responsibilities. Using the systemic approach of “management by process,” which is being utilized in other LMS Nicaragua projects and elsewhere in Latin America, the technical assistance teams produced expected results within the two-month timeframe. A key tool produced during the LMS’s Global Fund work in the country was the “Early Alert System”. This system facilitates routine monitoring and decision-making concerning priority management and technical needs of sub-recipients.

The Management and Leadership Program

• PRONICASS is built upon the foundation set by the Management and Leadership (M&L) Program, a USAID-funded cooperative agreement implemented by MSH. From 2001 – 2005, M&L worked in partnership with public and private organizations with close coordination with the USAID mission and with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) including Nicasalud (the Nicaragua NGO Health Network), Profamilia, and the Prosalud Project, the former USAID bilateral program. The Ministry of Health, the Social Security Institute, the Ministry of the Family and the Ministry of Education were among M&L’s client organizations, with some support provided by the Harvard School of Public Health.

• Nicaragua Leadership Development Program Achieves Its Objectives and Scales Up (PDF- 278KB)
• Leadership Development at the Central Level in Nicaragua: Supporting Institutional Reform in Three Ministries (PDF- 226KB)