Authors: Camila Giugliani, Bruce Bartholow Duncan, Erno Harzheim, Antônio Carlile Holanda Lavor, Míria Campos Lavor, Márcia Maria Tavares Machado, Maria Idalice Barbosa, Vera Joana Bornstein, Ana Lúcia Pontes and Daniela Riva Knauth
Angola is undergoing a period of reconstruction, after experiencing a protracted civil war that lasted until 2002. This historical context of violent conflicts has left a legacy of low rates of production and capital accumulation, of severe debt, and extreme dependency on foreign countries, all of which markedly influence the health situation of the Angolan people.
Since 2006, the Ministry of Health has been engaged in a process of revitalization of Municipal Health Systems, in order to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child mortality through decentralized and accessible interventions. The proposal reinforces the expansion and upgrade of primary health care (PHC) as a fundamental feature of the development of the health system, following the international strategic guidelines for the African continent. With the revitalization process, in 2007 the Community Health Workers Programme (referred to as PACS, acronym from the Portuguese) was launched in Luanda, as an initiative of the provincial government. For its initial implementation in six districts, the Provincial Department of Health (PDH) called for the support of Brazilian professionals, who worked as consultants through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of CHWs in improving maternal and child health internationally, but the way programmes are implemented depends on the context of each country, including, besides the health situation of the population, complex factors, such as political, social, economic and cultural. Therefore, because of its complexity, the CHWs programmes’ implementation process deserves special consideration in the research scenario.
Thus, motivated by the launching of the programme and by the cooperation with Brazil, the present study aimed to evaluate the implementation process of the PACS-Luanda, in order to draw lessons learned and recommendations for the future.
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Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Country Ownership, Monitoring and Evaluation, Program Evaluation, Scale-up
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2014
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Angola
Publisher May Restrict Access: No