Health Sector Support for Child Survival Projects (1988 - 1991)
MCDI acted as a sub-contractor to the Development Assistance Corporation (DAC) to provide long and short-term technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (MoHSA). The project assisted the Government of Togo (GoT) to strengthen its capacity to plan, manage and implement several key Child Survival interventions, compatible with USAID's Child Survival Strategy for Africa.
Through technical assistance, the project developed the MoHP Planning and Coordination Unit for Child Survival attached to the MoHP Secretary General's Office.
An IEC component promoted the development and dissemination of educational and mass media materials for CS interventions. The MCDI advisor collaborated with the National Health Education Service (SNES) in the development of mass media materials. The MCDI training/IEC specialist worked with SNES to develop standardization training modules for an in-service training system that involved a national level training-of-trainers team, a prefecture level team, health center personnel, and village health committees.
The MoHSA officially adopted the training modules and materials for the following Child Survival interventions:
- Combating diarrheal diseases
- Malaria
- EPI
- Birth spacing
The project's training materials were nationally disseminated and employed by UNICEF and other donors. MCDI carried out a major cost recovery study based on a household expenditure survey that generated data utilized in a proprietary econometric model to determine appropriate cost and price schedules for health services. The final report "Analysis of the Potential for Curative Care Cost Recovery in Togo and Proposal for a Uniform Curative-Care Pricing Policy for Rural Health Facilities" was enthusiastically received by the MoHP, which regarded it as a seminal study on cost determination and the public policies that effect costs.
