End Preventable Deaths of Women and Kids in Togo

Integrate Health Launches in Third District

Integrate Health’s Integrated Primary Care Program launched in four clinics and their surrounding communities in the Dankpen district on July 8^th. With this expansion, Integrate Health’s Integrate Primary Care Program, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, now serves a total population of over 142,000 in 13 clinics with 95 Community Health Workers across three districts. Within the last two months, all 33 new Community Health Workers in the Dankpen district successfully completed four weeks of intensive supervision from Integrate Health staff and have been providing high-quality, proactive care to their communities. Integrate Health is pleased to have received extremely positive feedback on program deployment and quality of services in the first few months in this new district. The launch of services in the Dankpen district marks the halfway point of Integrate Health’s planned four-year expansion to serve a population of 240,000 over five districts in northern Togo by 2021.

The following report describes additional progress made over the past three months, including successes and challenges, as well as outputs, outcomes, and funding metrics. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your support.

Program Highlights

Successes

1. Community Health Workers in the Kozah district have gone paperless! We are excited to announce that our Community Health Workers in all pilot sites have stopped using paper backup and use only the smart phone application co-designed with Medic Mobile. Our team will assess all data from October to December and will use this experience to inform a scale-up of mobile tools to other districts planned for 2020.

2. The Integrate Health program team held bi-annual community town hall meetings in the Bassar district in September. During the meetings, Integrate Health staff discussed program results from the last six months, addressed community feedback, and celebrated recent successes. Over 100 community members and stakeholders were present at each meeting, including clinic staff, Ministry of Health representatives, and village chiefs. During the meetings, chiefs expressed their gratitude for the Integrated Primary Care Program, and the District Health Director reiterated the Ministry of Health’s commitment to this program and partnership.

Challenges

1. In August, the Community Health Worker Supervisor in the Kozah district and the Clinical Mentor in the Dankpen district were recruited to join the public sector through an annual recruitment process. Both decided to leave Integrate Health to work within the government system. While sad to lose talented staff, Integrate Health is pleased to contribute to training strong public sector employees. Although new candidates were hired in September, some activities were postponed to afford new staff adequate time to be properly trained.

Expansion Highlights
Successes

1. Integrate Health was proud to join Togo’s Minister of Health, Dr. Moustafa Mijiyawa, and the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bertrand Beweli, in NYC for events around the UN General Assembly in September. Both Minister Mijiyawa and Dr. Beweli had the opportunity to meet with Integrate Health partners and learn from their experiences scaling professional Community Health Worker programs in other West African countries. The Minister and Dr. Beweli have pledged to continue these action-oriented conversations in Togo.

2. In September, Integrate Health embedded a new position, Quality Assurance Officer, in the Regional Health Management team to oversee ongoing implementation of the Integrated Primary Care Program. Reporting directly to the Regional Health Director, this position is designed to accelerate integration and facilitate local ownership of program implementation.

Challenges

1. In the first few months of launching services in the Dankpen district, Integrate Health staff have noticed that the new district has higher levels of under-five malnutrition compared to other districts. Furthermore, due to the rainy season and rough terrain in the Dankpen district, there have been transportation problems in getting severe malnutrition cases to the hospital. The Integrate Health program team is analyzing the possibility of expanding the rural ambulance program, while the Community Health Workers will be attentive to follow up on all malnutrition cases.

Organizational Highlights

Successes

1. The Integrate Health operations and HR staff rolled out two new exciting organizational tools this quarter. First, all staff have completed the new performance management system adapted from our friends at Last Mile Health, which includes annual goal setting, updated performance plans, and professional development. Second, the Integrate Health finance team has created an internal finance manual with updated policies and procedures. Both tools will be guides and resources for Integrate Health operations.

Challenges

1. Analysis of the data collected through Integrate Health’s repeated cross-sectional study is behind schedule. To address this challenge, Integrate Health has contracted a researcher to conduct the analysis and has opened recruitment for a new full-time position: Deputy Director of the Community Health Systems Lab . Integrate Health hopes that the analysis will be complete by the end of the calendar year.

Financial Highlights

Successes

1. Integrate Health received renewal funding from two existing partners and has submitted applications to two new funding partners this quarter.

Challenges

1. An application to USAID Health Systems Prize for $25,000 was not accepted.

Links:

• IH Website