Following deep work and collaboration across our country and global teams, Last Mile Health has developed country strategies for the next three to five years in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone. Anchored in our past and current work, the strategies identify the challenges and opportunities unique to each country’s health system–and set key objectives for Last Mile Health and our Ministry of Health partners. Measurable goals, concrete tactics for achieving these goals, and detailed explanations of the resources needed to implement these tactics ensure the feasibility of each strategy as well as charting a roadmap to tangible progress.
Ethiopia Country Director Abraham Zerihun presents the Ethiopia country strategy to Last Mile Health’s Leadership Council.
Over the next several years, the following overarching objectives will guide our work in each partner country:
- In Liberia, we’re scaling and sustaining the national community health worker program through the monitoring, evaluation, and sharing of practices in our managed counties. We’re strengthening financial, data, and management systems that build sustainability and improve performance, and we’re developing, implementing and monitoring high-quality education and training materials.
- In Ethiopia, we’re strengthening the quality and capacity of supervision in the health extension program, upskilling the community health workforce through digital innovations in in-service training, and supporting the delivery of quality care through enhanced support systems, tools, and management standards.
- In Malawi, we’re supporting the development and implementation of digital information systems, improving training and supervision for community health workers, and building the national health system’s capacity to mobilize resources for better primary care delivery.
- In Sierra Leone, we’re strengthening the national community health worker program through the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems–and supporting the training and supervision of a nationally integrated community health workforce.
- After thorough analysis and reflection, we made the strategic decision to wind down our operations in Uganda by June 2022. We are proud of the impact of our two-year partnership with the Ministry of Health to upskill health workers and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we believe it is the right decision to utilize our resources to their fullest potential for ongoing programs where there is a clear path forward to serve patients and health workers in partnership with the public sector.
Critically, the development of the country strategies has been a country-led effort. Their objectives outline how each program contributes to our broader mission and vision–and will serve as key components of our next strategic plan. “To ensure what we do is intentional, aligned, and durable, we must maintain a deep strategic focus on our programmatic work–and we must center the perspectives of those closest to that work,” says CEO Lisha McCormick. “Building a strategic plan anchored in our country strategies will guide us in a direction that keeps our country leadership, our country partners, and the patients we serve at the core of everything we do.”
