Announcement

HSP supports Provincial-wide “Best Practices” Conference in Aceh

Banda Aceh | Thursday, June 26, 2008

While Indonesia continues to make major improvements to its health system, the country still struggles to make progress on important maternal and child health outcomes, especially among the poor. With decentralization, district officials are responsible for maternal and child health programming, but significant challenges remain and thus far, decentralization has not yet delivered its full potential to improve health service delivery. 

From June 18-19, the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Provincial Health Office hosted a conference for all 23 of its districts to learn about best practices in maternal and child health programming. Sponsored by the USAID Health Services Program (HSP), over 300 participants attended the conference and were able to participate in skills-building sessions on a range of issues: planning and budgeting for health, advocacy, quality assurance, service provision, community mobilization, behavior change communications, and partnerships with the private sector.  The conference was designed to allow participants to “track” courses in their specialty areas, with nationally-known resource people. DRPD members, health office staff, midwives, and NGO activists were in attendance.

Keynote addresses were made by Dr. Mahlil Ruby, health economist and advisor to DPR Commission IX, and Maria Ulfa, DPR member and former head of Fathayat NU.  By the end of the two days, district participants had forged relationships between health service providers, local government policy makers, NGOs and the private sector, and left Banda Aceh with a range of tools to improve the health of women and children in their districts.