Quality Project: Golden Bridge

Project dates: November 2001-November 2002 for pilot

Themes: Quality of Care; Community mobilization; Family Planning and Maternal Health; STI/HIV/AIDS

• Overview
• Partners
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans

Overview

A major mandate of the MH/FP project is to increase access to and use of quality reproductive health services in the project districts through fully functional service delivery points (FFSDPs). At the service level, the COPE (Client Oriented Provider Efficient) approach is one way to improve quality of services. To ensure increased demand for services, the Golden Bridge (a quality accreditation project) is put in place to improve quality of services both from the providers' and community's perspectives. A pilot project is being conducted in two districts.

Partners

• MOH/National Reproductive Health Services-SNSR
• Local health and administrative authorities
• Engender Health

Objectives

• Improve quality of services based on standards established jointly by providers and communities.
• Develop monitoring and supervision tools to maintain established quality.
• Develop and maintain communities' sense of ownership for quality services.
• Establish and maintain a coordination/linking body between services and communities.
• Promote improved services to the community.
  

Activities

• Selection of two pilot sites.
• Baseline information collected from providers and community to develop a consensual quality action plan.
• Identification of linking body between communities and services.
• Launch/endorsement of joint quality action plan by local health and administrative authorities.

Outputs

• Quality action plans developed for six rural communities.
• Three local development committee meetings chaired by "sous-préfets" (local governmental authority) to promote ownership, advocate for the project, and approve the developed action plans.
• Three local quality commissions established to monitor implementation of the quality action plans.

Impact

Pilot project evaluation is planned for November 2002.

Unique Features

In Senegal, COPE is the tool used at the health service level to determine quality needs. So far, no tool has been developed to integrate community perception of quality health services. With the Golden Bridge project, community members can give their views on quality health services, including the way they would like such services to be delivered to them. Quality action plans, developed separately by providers and the community, were developed into one consensual quality action plan to be implemented jointly.

Future Plans

• Launch of Golden Bridge in three rural communities with officials from district health and administrative authorities. One of the launches will be attended by USAID representatives.
• Implementation of 3-month and annual action plans.
• Meetings every 2 months of quality commission to review progress in implementation of the action plan.
• Monitoring of activities by the MH/FP's project technical team every 2 months.
• Monitoring and mini-evaluation of the activities by the district health authorities in July 2002.
• Workshop to develop a monitoring tool integrating all health activities being implemented in the District of Thiadiaye.

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