Subject: July IHD e-newsletter
From: Diana Silimperi <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:47:31 +0000

Dear IHD Colleagues,

Below is our monthly IHD update outlining recent happenings in the Division. We look forward to receiving any feedback you may wish to share with us.

Abt Bites Back

At the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) stakeholders’ bi-annual meeting in June in Liverpool, England, Dereje Dengela, AIRS Technical Director, presented on the need for new or improved insecticides for indoor residual spraying (IRS) as a critical component in the fight against malaria. Abt is collaborating with IVCC to address the threat that insecticide resistance poses to malaria vector control and the problems associated with the short residual life of some insecticides recommended for IRS. Dengela talked about how AIRS data from entomological monitoring in the field magnified the need for new or improved insecticides to ensure malaria-transmitting mosquitoes are eliminated. About 120 people from across the globe attended the meeting, including keynote speaker Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, US Global Malaria Coordinator and leader of the Presidential Malaria Initiative. Contact: [email-masked].

Back to Basics for Chief of Party Conference

Featuring the theme “Back to Basics,” this year’s Chief of Party meeting, held June 9-12, focused on three key areas: strategy and market position, accountability and execution, and client relations and business development. Guest speakers from the donor community including Jennifer Adams, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Global Health, USAID, Hong Wang, Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Chris Tinning, Minister Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Washington, highlighted current trends in the international development arena. For example, Jennifer Adams reiterated USAID’s continued focus on ending child and maternal deaths, achieving an AIDS-free generation, and an emphasis on country ownership. Attending the COP meeting were 44 IHD COPs along with 8 IHD telecommuters. Other sessions provided COPs with opportunities for sharing across projects and technical areas, building leadership, presentation, and new business development skills, discussing innovation and reputational capital, and participating in ethics and compliance training.  A number of COPs took the opportunity while in the US to conduct brownbag discussions or presentations of project achievements and results for USAID staff.

Abt Salutes COP Awardees

·         Congratulations to COP Innovation Awardee Dr. Sabry Hamza, Health Systems Strengthening II in Jordan, for introducing the accreditation collaborative approach to prepare health centers to meet accreditation standards and thus improve provision of health services.

·         Likewise, congratulations to Impact Awardee Lisa Nichols, TASC 3 Mali ATN Plus. The ATN Plus project contributed to a 50% reduction in child mortality between 2006-2011 in Mali through the introduction of innovative approaches, scaling up of training in maternal and child health, malaria, immunization, and family planning, and task shifting.

Going for the Gold!

At the June 27th Abt-wide Annual Meeting, IHD was honored with the following awards. Congratulations to all recipients!

·         Daniel Bell Award for Outstanding Social Science Research – Slavea Chankova, Alison Comfort, and Randall Juras for innovative use of an experiment to advance the practice of family planning in SHOPS Madagascar.  The prize is named after Daniel Bell, a former board member and prominent social scientist.

·         Local Country National Administrative Excellence Award – Helder Tembe for outstanding financial and administrative work with the Mozambique Clinical HIV/AIDS System Strengthening Project. Helder developed systems to automate many manual processes including automation of payroll. Likewise, he spearheaded a plan to utilize a small fund for technical assistance to address immediate issues obstructing delivery of health services.

·         Clark Abt Prize for Outstanding Social Impact – Dereje Dengela, Bradford Lucas, and Allan Were for the amazing impact the AIRS program has achieved in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Since project inception, AIRS has protected 26 million people, including 4 million children under the age of five.

Stepping Up the Pace

At the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) in Melbourne, Australia, taking place July 20-25, Abt will host one satellite session, participate in another, and give two oral presentations and eleven poster presentations. Presentations will address funding the fight against the AIDS epidemic, integrating HIV clinical services into primary health care, and getting services to difficult-to-reach populations. Read more on Abt’s participation at AIDS 2014.

Medtronic Philanthropy Awards Abt $14.5 million for Global Chronic Disease Program

As part of efforts to reduce the global burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), Medtronic Philanthropy has selected Abt as the global implementation partner for HealthRise, a 5-year program to improve access to care and management of heart disease and diabetes for underserved populations in Brazil, India, South Africa, and the U.S.  In each target country, Abt will award grants to local organizations to conduct community-based demonstration projects that empower patients, leverage frontline health workers, and advance policies to enable people living with chronic disease to successfully manage their condition. Abt will coordinate the overall global program and each country-level program, which includes engaging experts and stakeholders, identifying and supporting local implementing organizations, and coordinating education and policy efforts based on lessons learned. The global evaluation partner, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, will monitor and evaluate the projects. Contact: [email-masked].

Abt-led Consortium Wins Africa Contract

Under a new USAID contract (Technical Assistance Support Contract Four Africa or TASC4-Africa), Abt and 15-plus partners will provide a range of technical assistance services, both short- and long-term, to USAID missions in Africa. Through expansion of basic health services, including family planning, strengthening national health systems,  and addressing HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, assistance will improve health status, especially that of women, children, and other vulnerable populations. The Abt-led consortium has worked in every eastern, southern, and west-African country to sustainably improve health outcomes. We look forward to continuing this work through many task order wins under the new TASC4-Africa mechanism. Contact: [email-masked].

Developing Haiti’s First Health Financing Strategy

To put its national health policy into action, Haiti needs to determine where the necessary resources will come from and how they will be spent. To help bridge that important gap, the HFG Project is working with the Ministry of Health’s Planning and Evaluation Unit to develop Haiti’s first national health financing strategy. This strategy will focus on the mobilization of resources on the pooling of risks and financial protection, and on purchasing and provider payment. A new brief describes HFG’s health financing work with the Ministry. Contact: [email-masked].

Accrediting Nursing Education Institutions in Haiti

In recent years, Haiti has experienced a boom in private nursing education. While the country has a long history of educating well-qualified nurses, little is known about the quality of education offered at the country’s more than 400 private nursing training institutions. Haiti’s Ministry of Health is working with the HFG Project to bolster its process for accrediting nursing education institutions. The accreditation process, called reconnaissance in French, will be carried out by the country’s Department of Training and Development for Health Sciences. A new brief describes the progress made in developing the reconnaissance process. Contact: [email-masked].

IHD Supports “Acting on the Call” to Prevent Maternal and Child Deaths

On June 25, Abt participated in a special event demonstrating our commitment to ending preventable child and maternal deaths. IHD staff joined representatives from USAID, the Government of Ethiopia, UNICEF, and other partners in Acting on the Call, a forum to celebrate the progress, assess the challenges that remain, and identify the steps needed to sustain momentum for ending preventable maternal and child deaths. USAID Administrator Raj Shah opened the forum by speaking about the $2.9m reallocation of USAID dollars to countries with the greatest need.  Discussed were improving standards for quality of service delivery, upgrading skills of midwives, measuring coverage, and community empowerment to ensure that every child worldwide has the same chance of survival. The role of public and private partnerships (PPPs) was mentioned by many speakers with World Bank President Jim Kim stating:  “we must include the private sector in defining goals and strategies, not just ask them for cash.” PPPs must work with local civil society organizations to improve quality of care and encourage the use of innovations across all sectors to make ending preventable maternal and child deaths a reality. There was a strong emphasis on data-driven, evidence-based, and results-oriented work. Contact: [email-masked].

PATHS2 Published in BMC Health Services Research Journal

Congratulations to PATHS2 for two recently published articles in the online open access, peer-reviewed journal, BMC Health Services Research.  The two articles were submitted as part of the Health Services Research: Evidence-based Practice conference which took place at Kings College in London July 1-3.

·         Bridging Human Resources for Health (HRH) gaps by applying clinical mentoring in selected health facilities: evidence from Jigawa State in northern Nigeria

·         Increasing health equity and access to skilled birth delivery services for the poor through community-based health-care interventions: evidence from northern Nigeria

Contact: [email-masked].

Upcoming Conferences: Abstract Due Dates, Notification Dates, and Acceptances

If you plan to submit an abstract or have an abstract accepted, please notify Liz Nugent.

IHEA/ECHE Congress (July 12-16, Dublin, Ireland) – 4 abstracts accepted

20th International AIDS Conference (July 20-25, Melbourne, Australia) – 9 abstracts accepted + 1 satellite session and 1 AbtJTA event

45th Union World Conference on Lung Health (September 30-October 3, 2014, Barcelona, Spain) – 3 abstracts accepted

Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (September 30-October 3, 2014, Cape Town, South Africa) – 13 abstracts accepted

American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) (November 2-6, 2014, New Orleans, LA) – Late-breaker abstracts August 6, abstract notices late August

APHA (November 15-19, 2014, New Orleans, LA) – 6 abstracts accepted, 5 wait listed

Global mHealth Forum (December 10-11, 2014, Maryland) – Abstracts due June 27

14th World Congress on Public Health (February 11-15, 2015, Kolkata, India) – Abstract submission closed

IHD Management Listens

Want to provide feedback to IHD management? No time for a face-to-face meeting or phone call? Try these options:

·         AGI Workspace and Discussion Board. Available to all IHD staff through the IHD Division page on AGI.  Follow the link below and navigate to the “Team Discussion” link on the left-hand navigation bar. Remember that posts on the discussion board are public and viewable by all IHD staff. https://abtassoc.sharepoint.com/divisions/InternationalHealthDivision/IHDPrivate/SitePages/Home.aspx.

·         Outlook Mailbox.  If you prefer not to have your comments and feedback visible to others, send your comments to [email-masked].

Welcomes – A Sampling

Hilary Andrews, Associate Analyst; Frederic Drigo, FCA;  Xi Cheng, Intern; Jeanna Holtz, Principal Associate; Francis Okello, Deputy Research Director-SHOPS Project;  Natasha Sakolsky, Portfolio Manager and Technical Strategist; May Post, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Strategic Lead

Looking to Hire

The below positions are full-time IHD opportunities in the Bethesda office. All IHD openings can be found at: www.abtassociates.com/careers.

·         Senior Finance & Contract Analyst, Req ID 8721 – Posted 06/20/2014

·         Principal Associate / MNCH Strategic Lead, Req ID 3961 – Posted 04/02/2014

·         Principal Associate / Malaria Strategic Lead, Req ID 1078 –Posted 07/11/2013

Events in July

July 12-16 – IHEA/ECHE Congress, Dublin, Ireland

July 16 – IHD Townhall

July 20-25 – 20th International AIDS Conference, Melbourne, Australia

SAVE THE DATE!

August 20 – IHD Quarterly Update

September 17 – IHD Global Staff Meeting

Sent to All IHD US & Field Staff