Community case management in Nicaragua: lessons in fostering adoption and expanding implementation.

Community case management (CCM) as applied to child survival is a strategy that enables trained community health workers or volunteers to assess, classify, treat and refer sick children who reside beyond the reach of fixed health facilities. The Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MOH) and Save the Children trained and supported brigadistas (community health volunteers) in CCM to improve equitable access to treatment for pneumonia, diarrhoea and dysentery for children in remote areas. In this article, we examine the policy landscape and processes that influenced the adoption and implementation of CCM in Nicaragua. Contextual factors in the policy landscape that facilitated CCM included an international technical consensus supporting the strategy; the role of government in health care provision and commitment to reaching the poor; a history of community participation; the existence of community-based child survival strategies; the decentralization of implementation authority; internal MOH champions; and a credible catalyst organization. Challenges included scepticism about community-level cadres; resistance from health personnel; operational gaps in treatment norms and materials to support the strategy; resource constraints affecting service delivery; tensions around decentralization; and changes in administration. In order to capitalize on the opportunities and overcome the challenges that characterized the policy landscape, stakeholders pursued various efforts to support CCM including sparking interest, framing issues, monitoring and communicating results, ensuring support and cohesion among health personnel, supporting local adaptation, assuring credibility and ownership, joint problem solving, addressing sustainability and fostering learning. While delineated as separate efforts, these policy and implementation processes were dynamic and interactive in nature, balancing various tensions. Our qualitative analysis highlights the importance of supporting routine monitoring and documentation of these strategic operational policy and management issues vital for CCM success. We also demonstrate that while challenges to CCM adoption and implementation exist, they are not insurmountable.

Reconsidering childhood undernutrition: can birth spacing make a difference? An analysis of the 2002-2003 El Salvador National Family Health Survey.

It is well understood that undernutrition underpins much of child morbidity and mortality in less developed countries, but the causes of undernutrition are complex and interrelated, requiring a multipronged approach for intervention. This paper uses a subsample of 3853 children under age 5 from the most recent family health survey in El Salvador to examine the relationship between birth spacing and childhood undernutrition (stunting and underweight). While recent research and guidance suggest that birth spacing of three to five years contributes to lower levels of infant and childhood mortality, little attention has been given to the possibility that short birth intervals have longer-term effects on childhood nutrition status. The analysis controls for clustering effects arising from siblings being included in the subsample, as well as variables that are associated with household resources, household structure, reproductive history and outcomes, and household social environment. The results of the multiple regression analyses find that in comparison to intervals of 36-59 months, birth intervals of less than 24 months and intervals of 24-35 months significantly increase the odds of stunting (<24 months Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.52; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.21-1.92; 25-36 months OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.05-1.64). Other factors related to stunting and underweight include standard of living index quintile, child's age, mother's education, low birthweight, use of prenatal care, and region of the country where the child lives. Policy and program implications include more effective use of health services and outreach programs to counsel mothers on family planning, breastfeeding, and well child care.

Community case management of childhood illness in Nicaragua: transforming health systems in underserved rural areas.

While social factors broadly determine health outcomes, strategic health workforce innovations such as community case management (CCM) can redress social inequalities in access to health care. Community case management enables trained health workers to assess children, diagnose common childhood infections, administer medicines, and monitor life-saving treatment in the poor, remote communities where they reside. This article reports on research that combined focus group discussions and key informant interviews to examine the perceptions of multiple stakeholders, with monitoring data, in order to assess programmatic results, limitations, and lessons learned in implementing CCM in Nicaragua. We found that CCM increases the use of curative services by poor children with pneumonia, diarrhea, or dysentery by five to six-fold over facility-based services. Apart from dramatically increasing geographic access to treatment for underserved groups, our qualitative research suggests that Nicaragua's CCM model also addresses the managerial challenges and social relations that underpin good quality of care, care-giver knowledge and awareness, and community mobilization, all health system-strengthening factors that are central to equitably and effectively improving child health. While our findings are promising, we suggest areas for further operational research to strengthen CCM program learning and functioning.

Creating options in family planning for the private sector in Latin America

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are facing the gradual phaseout of international-donor support of contraceptive commodities and technical and management assistance, as well as an increased reliance on limited public sector resources and a limited private sector role in providing contraceptives to the public. Therefore, those nations must develop multisectoral strategies to achieve contraceptive security. The countries need to consider information about the market for family planning commodities and services in order to define and promote complementary roles for the public sector, as well as to better identify which segments of the population each of those sectors should serve. While it is unable to mandate private sector participation, the poublic sector can create conditions that suport and promote a greater role for the private sector in meeting growing needs of family planning users. Taking steps to actively involve and expand the private sector's market share is a critical strategy for achieving a more equitable distribution of available resources, addressing unmet need, and creating a more sustainable future for family planning commodities and services (AU)

Creating options in family planning for the private sector in Latin America

Los países de América Latina y el Caribe enfrentan el cese gradual del apoyo y de la ayuda técnica y administrativa brindados por donantes internacionales a los proveedores de productos anticonceptivos, por lo que dependen cada vez más de los limitados recursos del sector público y del papel menguante del sector privado para la provisión de anticonceptivos al público en general. Así las cosas, dichos países tendrán que crear estrategias multisectoriales para lograr la provisión segura de anticonceptivos. Deberán, asimismo, tener en cuenta la situación del mercado de los productos y servicios de planificación familiar a fin de poder definir y promover los papeles complementarios que han de desempeñar el sector público, el sector comercial y el sector de las organizaciones no gubernamentales, así como determinar con más exactitud a qué grupos de la población debe servir cada uno de estos sectores. Si bien es cierto que el sector público no puede exigirle al sector privado su participación, sí le es posible crear las condiciones propicias para que este asuma un papel más destacado en la satisfacción de las necesidades cada vez mayores de quienes usan métodos de planificación familiar. Tomar medidas para incrementar la participación del sector privado en el mercado es una estrategia esencial si se ha de lograr una distribución más equitativa de los recursos existentes, satisfacer necesidades insatisfechas y crear un futuro sustentable para los proveedores de productos y servicios de planificación familiar. En este trabajo también se examinan en detalle las experiencias de dos países, Paraguay y Perú. El mercado de servicios de planificación familiar en Paraguay es ejemplo de la vigorosa participación del sector privado, aunque el acceso a los servicios de planificación familiar es limitado para quienes no pueden afrontar los costos de dicho sector. En Perú tuvo lugar en 1995 un cambio de políticas orientado a aumentar la cobertura de los servicios de planificación familiar que redundó en un acceso restringido para los pobres y dejó al Ministerio de Salud sin poder sufragar la necesidad creciente de productos y servicios de planificación familiar.