MANIFEST Issue Brief 4: Good Practices for District Health Teams to Improve Quality of Service Delivery: Lessons from MANIFEST
Future Health Systems
Health systems in low-income countries are often characterized by poor health outcomes. While many reasons have been advanced to explain the constantly poor outcomes, management of the system has been found to play a key role.According a World Health Organization (WHO) framework, the management of health systems is central to its ability to deliver needed health services. In decentralized systems of governance such as that of Uganda, district level managers such as the district health team play central roles in ensuring the delivery of quality health services. In response, Makerere University School of Public Health through the MANIFEST study sought to improve management practices among other targets.
This MANIFEST Issue Brief shares lessons learned on how to enhance the commitment of district health teams, and presents the findings from quarterly district implementation committee review meeting minutes (four from each district), interviews with nine district health team members and observations made by the research team during the implementation of the project.