Public-private partnerships help Jamaica overcome COVID-19 challenges — Two years ago, as it struggled to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus and get people vaccinated, the Government of Jamaica sought to leverage the potential of the country’s private health care providers. The USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project supported the effort by providing grants and capacity strengthening…

Improved internet connectivity and capacity strengthening make all the difference for health officers — Eugenia Borges, a district health officer, uses an improved internet connection to upload data to the national online system in August 2023. (Photo: Emilio Dos Santos/USAID LHSS Project-Timor-Leste) Timor-Leste faced numerous health system challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, not least being chronic difficulties in managing data on vaccination rates. Health…

Women and urban poor are priority for private health products firm — The Afghan Social Marketing Organization (ASMO), a leading private-sector provider of family planning and maternal and child health products, has long contributed to health in Afghanistan. Data from 2015 show that more than 22 percent of women in Afghanistan who used modern contraceptives used products marketed by ASMO. Similarly, ASMO’s…

Communes in Battambang Province are among first to devote local funds to HIV — Three years ago, Cambodia’s Battambang Province joined the country’s Fast Track Cities Initiative, making it one of the first areas in the country to commit to using its local budget to help end AIDS by 2025. The commitment meant that local authorities like Sokvanaroth Hem, a commune (sub-district) chief in…

e-LMIS system ensures a reliable drug supply — An estimated 170,000 people contract TB each year in Vietnam. In the past, TB patients received free TB drugs funded by the national budget and international donors. But last year, for the first time ever, a TB patient received first-line medication under Vietnam’s social health insurance (SHI) program. It was…

Promising models from other countries point the way — By Benjamin Dunbar and Vitaliy Karanda Having proven invaluable in helping Ukrainians access health care throughout the Russian invasion, telemedicine is poised to play an integral role in health care delivery in Ukraine after the war ends. Indeed, the Ukrainian government had already begun working with the USAID Local Health…

Health workers and educators join forces to immunize schoolchildren in the Andes — COVID-19 vaccination in Peru’s Ayacucho region became available in May 2021. Ten months later, however, the region had one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in all Peru. Two-dose vaccination coverage stood at 71 percent in adults, 60 percent in children aged 12–17, and 30 percent in children aged 5–11…

By Francisco da Silva Mendonca and Bhavesh Jain Civil society was a key force behind Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002 from Portuguese colonization and Indonesian occupation and continues to play a crucial role in the country’s development. After independence, civil society organizations (CSOs) helped rebuild the country by providing humanitarian assistance…

LHSS helps Peru Ministry of Health strengthen its budget execution — By Karishmah Bhuwanee and Arturo Javier Granados Mogrovejo Returning funds to the Ministry of Finance at the end of the fiscal year is the last thing any Ministry of Health (MOH) wants to do. Ongoing health programs need the resources, and returning money makes it hard to negotiate for adequate…