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September 22, 2010

Sturchio: 'The focus should be on outcomes'

John Donnelly

Part eight of the 8-part series In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs. Dr. Jeffrey L. Sturchio is president and CEO of the Global Health Council. He also is a member of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, which aims to modernize the system for prioritizing and managing U.S. global development efforts. 

Q: Why is country ownership important?

A: If you just look at the tradition of foreign assistance, billions of dollars have gone into this system the last 50 years, but countries haven’t been fully developed. The way things were being done just wasn’t working. Now, there’s an effort by donors and those in developing countries to figure out how to do development work much better.

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September 21, 2010

From Mali: `We have a lot of control now’

John Donnelly

Part seven of the 8-part series In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs. Dr. Salif Samake is Director of Planning and Statistics for Mali’s Health Ministry.

Q: How important is country ownership of health programs in Mali?

A: To me, country ownership is crucial to achieve the development goals. All the support given by partners should help the country become better organized and conduct its own development. Countries cannot be just a place to capture support for donor countries and move on their agenda.

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September 20, 2010

From Nepal: `We build step by step’

John Donnelly

 

Part six of the 8-part series In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs. Dr. Sudha Sharma, Nepal’s Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population and a gynecologist and public health specialist by training, spoke with John Donnelly in her office in Kathmandu earlier this month.

Q: What can Nepal’s experience in country ownership teach other countries?

A: We have just completed the development of Nepal’s health sector program for the next five years. The key elements are based on five principles of international partnership – country ownership, harmonization, alignment, management for results, and mutual accountability.

 

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September 17, 2010

Omaswa from Uganda: `Donors want a controlling say’

John Donnelly

Part five of the 8-part series In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs. Dr. Francis Omaswa is the founder and executive director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, based in Kampala, Uganda. Omaswa, a medical doctor, was the Director General for Health Services in the Ministry of Health in Uganda for seven years, and currently is a senior advisor to the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health.

Q: What is your assessment of the state of country ownership in health programs?

A: Donors with the money want to have a controlling say in the planning of the programs. That’s basically it. The results are not as expected.

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September 16, 2010

Wisman: Donors need to `take a little risk’

John Donnelly

Part four of the 8-part series In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs. Rosann Wisman is the director of Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI), which works in five countries to help support leaders in Health Ministries. MLI is a program of Aspen Global Health and Development.

Q: Why are so many people talking about country ownership now?

A: I think it’s because there’s an effort to examine what has been effective and what hasn’t in development during the last 20 years or more.

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