NGOs and Health Sector Reform (2)
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I agree with Riitta-Lissa Kolehmainen-Aitken in most of her observa-
tions in the Dar es Salaam meeting, but there was a lot that came out
about best practices as far as NGOs were concerned. The NGOs were felt
- to be more efficient in doing whatever little they were doing and
hence provided best buys for the dollar;
- provide many small scale models on various aspects of health care
provision in the rural areas which were not accessible even to gov-
ernment;
- provide many innovative models of health care financing.
Admittedly being NGOs most of the models or packages they provided were
small scale in comparison to government but they were good models all
the same and could be emulated and expanded for large scale adoption by
public sector.
I do agree that fora are needed where the governments and the NGOs
could have regular dialogue to demystify their roles and bring better
understanding amongst themselves. Here in Kenya we have the NGO Council
to which all the NGOs in the country belong and the NHRDC (the National
Health Research & Development Centre) which co-ordinates health re-
search initiatives in the country, which can create such dialogue and
bring about better understanding.
Facilitators and donors would be urged to spend some of their funds on
such initiatives which are likely to bring far greater dividends when
there is better co-operation amongst concerned in health provision in
the country.
Mohamed Abdullah
Kenya
mailto:abdullah@AfricaOnline.co.ke
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