New York: The Clinton Foundation reported Tuesday that just a year after launching a major health initiative, it has dramatically improved quality and delivery of health services for millions of people in Rwanda and Haiti, RNA reports.

The Performance-Based Financing (PBF) – which empowers health managers to allocate resources in a way that rewards meeting health goals – has almost doubled deliveries in health centers from approximately 23% in 2006 to 42% in 2008.

The $12.5million four-year initiative is being implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). By improving financial management capacity and expertise, MSH said the new PBF plan strengthens the sustainability and performance of ministries of health, district and community institutions, and NGOs.

The Rwanda program also accelerated an increase in Rwandan health center quality scores by 20 points on a scale of 100, including increases in quality of general management, health center cleanliness, and the overall quality of outpatient, obstetric, family planning, vaccination, nutrition, and HIV/TB clinics.  

"Performance-based financing is a powerful means of expanding access to high-quality, efficient health care services by providing incentives to providers and facilities for improved results," said Dr. Jonathan D. Quick, President & CEO of MSH in New York.

Government launched the community PBF program early this year in collaboration with MSH to address the human resources for health shortage by training cadres of five Community Health Workers (CHW) per village to provide basic primary health care services.

"The community PBF program will impact rural populations, improve engagement in and support to the health system for over two million people and will greatly strengthen community involvement in efforts to control HIV & AIDS and TB," said John Pollock, MSH Global Technical Lead, Health Delivery Systems and Senior Fellow for Health Reform and Finance.
 
In Haiti, MSH expanded the unique initiative into the public sector and enhanced community- based services to improve access to health services. Last year alone, nearly 4,000,000 people - 43% of the population - were reached by the Sante Pour le Developpement et la Stabilite d'Haiti program (SDSH) with 147 service delivery points in all 10 geographical departments.

More than $6 million was secured in leveraged contributions from the private sector with about $10 million more expected by September 2010. A new deworming project, support for nutrition programs, and inventory and distribution system were launched in August 2009.

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