Cross Sector Leadership Exchange: Uganda Leadership Pioneers 2018

Pepal brings together NGOs, global corporations and the public sector to develop leaders and find practical solutions to challenging social issues in East Africa and South Asia.

Since 2016, Pepal has collaborated with the Cross Sector Leadership Exchange (CSLE) and Baylor-Uganda (Ugandan NGO) to improve health outcomes for patients in two regions in Uganda through executive leadership trainings, this program is known as the Uganda Leadership Pioneers. Uganda Leadership Pioneers (https://www.pepal.org/uganda-leadership-pioneers/), facilitated by Sue Hopgood and Charlie Phelps from CSLE, brings together senior leaders from the UK public sector with government District Health Management Teams and frontline government health workers to create sustainable solutions to pressing health burdens through improved leadership skills.

From the 15th to the 22nd of September 2018, Jemima Burnage (Care and Quality Commission, NHS England), Mark Gillyon-Powell (Health and Justice, NHS England), Nina Pinwill (National Cancer Drugs Fund, NHS England) and Penelope Banham (Metropolitan Police) alongside Ugandan colleagues took part in the fourth Uganda Leadership Pioneers workshop in Kyenjojo and Kyegegwa districts in Rwenzori region, Uganda.

Baylor-Uganda, as the main CDC-funded implementing partner in Rwenzori the region, together with the government District Health Management Teams, advised that the focus of the workshop should be to support their joint efforts to reach the global UNAIDS target to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. As part of this these targets, Baylor-Uganda aims to identify 372 new HIV positive clients per week in each of the eight districts in the region.

Uganda Leadership Pioneers, through their classroom training and discovery field visits, tried to identify challenges faced by health facilities in achieving these targets. Theoretical frameworks on systems thinking, stakeholder mapping and PESTEL/SWOT analyses were employed by the teams to propose pragmatic solutions and design their action plans.

To ensure sustainability, the action plans were presented to district technical and political leaders on the 21st of September for their feedback and review. Actions plans centred on ideas of increased health education amongst communities, ensuring that outreach activities to reach people who are suspected to be positive for screening were adequately facilitated, and that district leaders provide increased mentoring and monitoring. The implementation of these plans will be overseen by the Baylor-Uganda Governance and Leadership Team over the coming months.

At the end of the programme, one of the UK participants said:

“I am going to keep in touch with my team who will update me on the progress of our goals. I have achieved deeper insight into working with diverse people and how to get the best from them.”

One of the Ugandan participants stated:

“I have gained practical skills in steps to solving health systems challenges using a bottom-top approach. I will use these skills in my health facility technical support visits.”

The cross-sector learning developed during this week-long workshop will augment the incredible work that is being done by Baylor-Uganda to tackle the AIDS epidemic in Rwenzori region. The shared value created during this program is sure to affect the workplaces of both our UK and Ugandan colleagues in a positive way with increased motivation to make a change in their respective communities. Listen to participants share their experiences in the above video!

If you would like to join the Uganda Leadership Pioneers in the future please contact sarah.galvin@pepal.org to register your interest.

Cervical cancer prevention and treatment training in Tanzania

Pepal Foundation, through the NJIA collaboration and with the support of the Ministry of Health (MoHCDGEC), organised a cervical cancer screening and treatment training this week for 20 health care practitioners in Kagera Region, Tanzania. 

Cervical cancer is a preventable disease yet it is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. 87% of deaths resulting from cervical cancer occur in low-income countries. Mortality from the disease is especially high in sub-Saharan Africa, with East Africa having the highest incidence rate in the world. In Tanzania, the cervical cancer age-standardised mortality rate is 54 per 100,000 women meaning that cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer and cancer-related death among Tanzanian women. More than 7,300 Tanzanian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and more than half of these women die due to late stage diagnosis.

Pepal collaborates with Roche Pharmaceutica, ICAP Tanzania and the Ministry of Health (MoHCDGEC) to tackle the burden of cervical cancer in Kagera region through the NJIA program. NJIA translates as 'the way' in Swahili, and combines leadership with innovation training. The program aims to develop leaders in the region capable of increasing the numbers of women screened and treated for the disease by piloting innovative ideas. NJIA has been running in Kagera since 2016 and thus far nearly 100 leaders have been trained and 40 ideas piloted. NJIA has contributed to the screening of 63,000 women and treatment of 2,217 VIA positive women with cryotherapy. This remote northwestern region is now the third best region in the country for cervical cancer prevention and treatment indicators after Dar Es Salaam and Dodoma (the country's largest regions).

Pepal is proud to have organised the training of 20 health care practitioners in VIA (visual inspection with acetic acid) and cryotherapy this week. In resource-limited settings, this is the WHO recommended procedure for cervical cancer prevention and treatment. The cervix is swabbed with the vinegar, visually inspected by the health care professional and if an abnormality is suspected, treated immediately with non-invasive cryotherapy.

We cannot wait to invite these newly-qualified health care practitioners onto our leadership and innovations programs in the future to increase their capacity to save women's lives!

Research Published in the Journal of Healthcare Leadership

Research conducted as part of Pepal's Caring Together project in Uganda has been published in the Journal of Healthcare Leadership!

Caring Together was a partnership between Pepal, Baylor-Uganda and Janssen Pharmaceutica (Johnson & Johnson) to improve the leadership capacities of frontline health care workers in Uganda from 2015-2018.

As part of the project, Musinguzi Conrad, a Health Service specialist, was awarded a grant by Janssen Pharmaceutica to work as a Research Fellow at Baylor-Uganda to investigate the connection between leadership style and health worker motivation, job satisfaction and teamwork. Conrad was supported in this research by our wonderful Programmes Manager, Aruna Dahal, who is credited as a co-author in the publication.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in three different geographical regions in Uganda - Eastern and Rwenzori regions (where the Caring Together leadership project was implemented), and West Nile region (where the project was not implemented). The study found that transformational leadership styles had a positive impact on stimulating motivation, assuring job satisfaction, and consolidating teamwork among health workers compared with those who demonstrated transactional skills or laissez-faire styles. The results of this study clearly shows that transformational leaders need to be fostered in the health care system to ensure efficiency in health care delivery in Uganda. 

This research was invaluable to the Caring Together program design and for Pepal's other leadership training projects in East Africa and South Asia.

Please follow this link to read the article and get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about the importance of leadership for health system strengthening in East Africa.

Innovation in Myanmar: Celebrating the End of a Program

Since 2016, Innovation in Myanmar has brought together Burmese NGOs and CBOs together with employees from Johnson & Johnson to design innovative pilot projects to aid Myanmar's HIV response.

NGOs rely on money from a variety of sources, and in Myanmar, the majority of NGOs depend on foreign donors to survive. Pepal recognised that an ongoing shortfall in aid was, and continues to, threaten the sustainability of NGO activities in the country. Accordingly, at the heart of the program was the goal to help a variety of local NGOs in Myanmar to become self-sustainable.

Over the course of two years, Pepal hosted four innovation workshops and worked with over thirty local organisations in the fight against HIV. As a result of the program there are now 35 Burmese local healthcare workers trained in leadership skills who are driving sustainable social change on the ground. 

Three of the innovation projects piloted during the program continue to thrive in Myanmar:

- A sexual and reproductive health education tool for young people created by our leaders is now being integrated into mainstream youth programming. Phoenix, a local NGO, together with corporate participants, created a novel game to engage adolescents in conversations about their sexual health. In their ‘Ask a Question, Get an Answer, Win a Prize’ game, youths pay a small fee for three attempts at shooting a target. If they fill out a quiz on sexual reproductive health correctly, they get an additional two attempts for free, increasing their chances of winning a prize. After they have filled out the quiz, they talk through the correct answers with Phoenix volunteers, and are given the opportunity to ask questions. This allows Phoenix volunteers to educate youths for sexual reproductive health and collect valuable data at a low cost.

- In Mandalay, Alliance Myanmar's CBO partner, Spectrum, has set up a shop run by HIV+ clients. All profits from sales are used to support HIV prevention, care and treatment activities run by the CBO.

- A 'one-stop-shop' for HIV patients in Yangon is almost finished construction, and due to open this summer. During an innovation workshop, teams identified that accessing comprehensive care in Yangon was difficult due to distance between diagnostic and treatment facilities. The one-stop-shop was conceptualised so as to increase access to diagnosis and care for HIV+ patients, and to cut down time and costs of travel. Ratana Metta Organisation, the CBO involved in the workshop, has received local funding and will open its doors to the public soon.

Innovation in Myanmar demonstrated that sustainable social change is possible through collaboration, leadership and innovation. Collaboration between corporate and NGO partners facilitated a knowledge exchange of business thinking and healthcare knowledge. This knowledge exchange made innovation possible. But the leadership skills, at the heart of all Pepal projects, ensured the sustainability of the projects piloted during the program.

We would like to thank all of our partners who drove Innovation in Myanmar's success since 2016, and we look forward to watching the progress of our local partners in the country go from strength to strength. 

The International Summit on Leadership in Healthcare

The Rt. Hon Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister of Uganda, Dr. Adeodata Kekitiinwa, Executive Director of Baylor-Uganda, and Julie Saunders, Executive Director of Pepal at the International Summit on Leadership in Healthcare.

Pepal believes that improving leadership at all levels is key to driving sustainable social change and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over 150 people, including the Prime Minister of Uganda, believed so too at the International Summit on Leadership in Healthcare that we co-hosted in Kampala, Uganda in April 2018.

The Summit hosted over 150 guests from 40 health-focused organisations who travelled from over 10 different countries. Organised to provide a forum for a cross-sector discussion of the importance of leadership in healthcare systems, the Summit was also a platform for the launch of the final Caring Together project results. The Summit, in bringing together representatives from government, donor, implementing partner and corporate sectors, actualised Pepal's mission of aligning social and political agendas to solve pressing social issues. 

Highlights from the International Summit on Leadership in Healthcare.

The Summit drew the Caring Together project to a close after three successful years in the Rwenzori and Eastern regions of Uganda. The Caring Together project was jointly run by Pepal, Janssen Pharmaceutica (Johnson&Johnson) and Baylor-Uganda to strengthen the leadership skills of frontline health workers to improve service delivery and patient outcomes. Baylor-Uganda will be carrying forward the best practices of Caring Together through their newly-established Leadership Academy which will provide leadership and capacity-building training to institutions throughout Uganda. We are now working to ensure that all the commitments relating to the Baylor-Uganda Leadership Academy are fulfilled, particularly engaging with the senior partners at the Ministry of Health to ensure that the right procedures are followed for the Academy’s establishment. 

Pepal would like to thank the partners that made this event possible: Baylor-Uganda and Janssen Pharamceutica. The drive and dedication of their organising committees were instrumental to the Summit's success. 

All videos, posters, and publications from the Summit can be found here: www.healthcareleadershipsummit.org

The International Summit On Leadership In Healthcare, Kampala

With just 19 days to go until the International Leadership in Healthcare Summit in Kampala, the Pepal team have been working hard to organise what is sure to be an incredible event.

Hosting high profile plenary speakers, world class researchers, donor panels and poster presentations, this exciting, two-day international event will gather together some of the foremost thinkers on leadership in healthcare from around the world.

A forum for sharing best practices and practical implementations as well as debate and knowledge exchange with global experts, the International Leadership in Healthcare Summit will showcase the latest leadership innovations in healthcare and explore their sustainability.

Hosted by Baylor-Uganda, and supported by Pepal and Janssen Pharmaceutica, the Summit will be celebrating the end of the three year Caring Together project in Uganda. The results of this incredible project, funded by Comic Relief, will be launched and the team will advocate for the importance of leadership in healthcare to improve health service delivery in front of the country's foremost donors and implementing partners. 

Check out www.healthcareleadershipsummit.org for the latest news and uploads from the Summit. We wish the Pepal team in Uganda all the best in their preparations over the next 2.5 weeks!