Healthcare Management Strategy, Communication, and Development Challenges and Solutions in Developing Countries by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The problem is not entirely that of communication staff. There are persistent gaps in the agenda of Health and Population Welfare ministries and program sponsors. An interview with the technical specialist for reproductive and maternal health for the UNFPA office in Somalia revealed that senior health officials of the Ministry of Health do not use data for decision-making. They also seem unprepared to change their attitude toward using data to transform lives. According to Dr. Lordfred Achu, a technical adviser in reproductive health, some donors and government health officials have conflicting priorities when they come to negotiation meetings (Achu 2013). This less-than-supportive attitude has major implications in the selection of types of projects to be implemented. There is no assessment of the capacity for communication to change lifestyles and the overall results expected.

NGOs, parastate agencies in the field, and community leaders have complained that UN agencies abandon ongoing projects to fund new ones, without completing activities previously started. One program, for example, funded the construction of a police center and was expected to provide computers, furniture, and technical support to help the government of the DRC. The program, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was terminated in 2013. Jointly implemented by the UNFPA, UNICEF, and another UN agency, the Project for the Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence in East DRC ended after just seven years. The project was dropped, even though data collected by different sources showed an increase in sexual assaults and gender-based violence.

One of the crucial challenges for communication teams is the growing criticism and negative public campaigns over the use of contraceptives to reduce the spread of diseases in highly populated areas. The opposition has been spearheaded by political parties opposed to governments in power. Research has also shown that public figures deliberately misinterpret the WHO and UNFPA campaigns against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unplanned pregnancies in Nigeria, Uganda, and Cameroon, among other areas.

Local knowledge can also work against projects. A sense of suspicion permeates the community at the initial stages of knowledge sharing. When the AIDS epidemic first hit the northwest province in Cameroon in the mid-1980s, hawkers and small business owners quickly came up with an acronym for AIDS―American Intelligence to Discourage Sex. This soon led to public resistance against the distribution of condoms in the streets, education sensitization activities in schools, and messages on billboards. The local press reported that the anti-campaign quickly spread among young, educated adults and later among the uneducated, leading to greater ignorance and public nonchalance toward the deadly nature of disease. Within a few years, AIDS had become a pandemic. About 70 percent of pregnant women were diagnosed in the health clinics as being infected with the HIV virus. Although no meaningful data is available on the social consequences, the disease probably promoted prostitution and sexual violence, ultimately increasing transmission rates among married people in that region. The polygamous community has faced an increase in the number of cases of infidelity and adultery as well.

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