Improving Community and Family Health Care Services Project

closed

The objectives of the Improving Community and Family Health Care Services Project are to improve the access to, and the quality of, preventive and promotion health and nutrition services among poor and vulnerable populations of Nicaragua and to strengthen the operational capacity of the Nicaragua Ministry of Health through the rehabilitation of health centers as well as ensure financial support in case of a public health emergency. This project has three components. Component one includes the expansion of coverage of health services. This component aims to finance capitation payments to ensure access by eligible beneficiaries to health services, through (i) the expansion of coverage of health services in the selected municipalities and in the indigenous territories of Alto Wangki and Bokay, (ii) the standardization of the Health Services, (iii) the improvement of the quality of Health Services, and (iv) the implementation of the Community and Family Health Model (Modelo de Salud Familiar y Comunitario) (MOSAFC). Component two consists of institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Health, rehabilitation of health care networks and contingent financing of public health emergencies. This component will strengthen the institutional capacity of essential public health functions of the Ministry of Health and rehabilitation of municipal and national health care facilities of Nicaragua and finance goods, minor rehabilitation works, consultants' services (including nonconsultant services) and operating costs in the case of a public health emergency. Component three comprises of strengthening of Ministry of Health's capacity to administer, supervise and evaluate the implementation of health services. This component will strengthen the Ministry of Health's capacity for administering, supervising and evaluating the activities referred to in Component one of the project, including the carrying out of an internal technical audit, an external annual technical audit to validate the number of eligible beneficiaries receiving services and the achievement of Performance Goals, and the carrying out of the annual project external financial audit, and the 2011 Nicaraguan Demographic and Health Survey (Encuesta Nicaragüense de Demografía y Salud).