Healthcare workers sit in a classroom during a training session.

Building resilient health care systems in Kambia, Kailahun and Pujehun

Strengthening the health system and epidemic prevention

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  • Client

    German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

  • Country
  • Political sponsors

    More

  • Runtime

    2024 to 2026

  • Involved

    World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), World Bank

  • Products and expertise

    Social development

Two animal health workers vaccinate a goat.

Context

In Sierra Leone, the mortality rate of mothers and newborns is higher than average. The quality of health care services is inadequate, which is partly due to insufficiently trained staff.

At the same time, disease outbreaks that are transmitted from animals to human occur regularly.

Objective

Sierra Leone’s health care system is better aligned with the needs of selected population groups in the districts of Kambia, Kailahun and Pujehun.

Approach

In Kambia, Kailahun and Pujehun, the project is developing the capacities of service providers. Together with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation, it is developing gender-sensitive training measures in the districts and training health care staff in emergency obstetric and newborn care, digital skills and One Health. A support programme, in which staff from two midwifery collages advise health care staff at the facilities, supplements the training courses in emergency obstetric and newborn care.

At the same time, the project is establishing supervisory visits to health care facilities and mechanisms with which the population can provide feedback on the quality of the facilities. This increases the quality of the health care services.

The project also promotes the One Health approach in the three districts. This allows professionals in human health, animal health and the environment to work together in a structured way to control epidemics more effectively.

Health care staff sit together and check documents.© GIZ / Tennyson Momoh

Last update: March 2024