Blantyre, Malawi - From 18 to 23 April 2016 the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO implemented the first training session for the management of District Health Systems for the District Health Management Teams (DHMT) from the South West and South East health zones representing 13 districts. The training took place at the Malawi Sun Hotel, in Blantyre. The guest of honor was Mrs Chimwemwe Banda, Principal Secretary, MOH and among the distinguished guests was Dr Eugene Nyarko, WHO Representative.  At least five participants from each of the districts turned up for the training comprising District Health Officers, District Nursing Officers, Medical Officers, Health Administrators and District Environmental Health Officers.

The purpose of the meeting was to impart knowledge and skills that would enhance the capacity of the DHMTs in health services management. In fact the training would enable them to effectively implement health services as well as provide oversight during implementation of the Health Sector Strategic Pan (HSSP 2017 to 2021) and the District Implementation Plans (DIPs). Speaking to the participants at the opening session the WHO Representative (WR), Dr Eugene Nyarko commended the Ministry of Health senior management for making a critical decision towards addressing the challenges that districts face in managing health services. “Consider this training session as a solution centre, where you learn the skills and the know-how of finding solutions to address the challenges as you implement the District Implementation Plans” Dr Nyarko said. He continued to explain that the training should not be regarded as a one off event, but rather that become institutionalized to provide an on-going capacity building for DHMT members, new and old. In this regard he called upon MOH to identify core trainers during the training sessions to facilitate future training sessions. 

The guest of honor Mrs Chimwemwe Banda, Principal Secretary, said that the training was happening at the time when the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development was devolving the human resources. She also went on to say that the 2014 to 2015 Joint Annual Review reports revealed the district health system inefficiencies in terms of the financial, drug and infrastructural audits. These findings compelled MOH to collaborate with the WHO to implement this type of training, whose intended outcome is to strengthen the capacity of DHMTs to manage health services better than they are doing now. 

The WHO brought in the Dr Prosper Tumusiime from the Inter-country Support Team in Harare, Zimbabwe. Dr Tumusiime is the focal point for Health Systems for East and Southern Africa and was the main facilitator of the DHMT training assisted by the Dr Francis Magombo, National Professional Officer, WHO Country Office, Malawi. During the training Dr Prosper Tumusiime provided overview of the relevant and recent global policies and strategies guiding health development, in addition to the review of the health services institutional arrangement and operations under decentralization, leadership skills and conflict management. Two more training sessions scheduled for June and July will be conducted for the Central East, Central West and the Northern health zones.

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For more information, please contact:

Wenji Hudson Kubwalo, Health Promotion Officer, Tel: +2651772755/450, Mobile: +265888878011, Email:  wenjikubwalo [at] gmail.com

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Ci-dessous:

01 - Over 60 health workers participated at the first DHMT Health Systems training session at Malawi Sun Hotel, Blantyre. The second and third sessions will happen from June 2016

02 - Dr Eugene Nyarko, WHO Representative (left) and the Guest of Honor Mrs Chimwemwe Banda sitting at the high table during the opening ceremony

03 - Participants from 13 districts in the South East and South West Health zones were at the District Health Systems management training