I have just read Melinda Gates’ blog on her new year resolution. It's really a renewal of the already massive commitment of the Gates Foundation to carry on supporting improvements in health through innovation and a strong focus on delivering results.
Melinda Gates says some very nice things about DFID’s strengthened focus on results, commending the two new ‘frameworks for results’ which focus on malaria and maternal, neonatal and child health. The focus on results here is institution wide, and the approach set out in the frameworks is already being rolled out rapidly at the country level.
Gathering good quality data ensures the accuracy of results and is not a simple process. Like many of my colleagues, I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of months analysing available data, and trying to define in much more concrete and easily understandable terms the results that we are delivering in Mozambique. The results frameworks recognise that gathering accurate and timely data in resource poor countries can be a real challenge, but it is not an insurmountable one.
Melinda Gates focuses on results in the area of malaria and the picture above shows some of the work that has been funded by DFID, working through the Malaria Consortium, in support of a national campaign to distribute bed nets to rural areas. The photo was taken by Raquia Suele, and you can follow this link to see a Malaria Consortium information note about the campaign. I am also posting a PDF file produced by the Malaria Consortium that highlights some of the impact of their DFID funded work.
I have posted blogs on malaria previously and DFID will continue to support the Ministry of Health to delivery an ambitious programme on malaria which aims for impressive results. Over the next four years the Government of Mozambique will increase the percentage of pregnant women who receive at least two doses of treatment to prevent malaria in pregnancy from its level of 52.5% in 2008, to a target of 90% in 2014. This will increase the number of women receiving this treatment from 458,850 to 790,200. The number of children with fever who have a rapid diagnostic test for malaria will increase from 1.3 million in 2008 to 3.5 million by 2014, which will contribute to a reduction in the number of children dying before their fifth birthday, with an estimated 25,780 fewer deaths per year.
I like Melinda Gates’ resolution – which is about upping our game, doing more, doing it better and documenting what has been achieved. It’s a good resolution for 2011.
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