Lao PDR Health Governance and Nutrition Development Project

closed

The objective of the Health Governance and Nutrition Development Project is to help increase coverage of reproductive, maternal and child health, and nutrition services in target areas in Lao PDR. There are five components to the project, the first component being health sector governance reform. This component will support: (a) development, implementation and maintenance of an improved health management information system (HMIS) of the MOH; and (b) technical support, capacity building and training for MOH staff at the central, provincial and district levels in the use of such system. The second component is the service delivery. This component will support the carrying out of a program of activities designed to strengthen the HMIS at the central level to support and oversee the implementation of decentralized health and nutrition service delivery. The third component is the nutrition social and behavior change communication. This component will support the development of an integrated national strategy and implementation plan for social and behavioral change communication to improve nutrition. The fourth component is the project management, monitoring and evaluation. This component will support provision of technical and operational assistance for the day-to-day coordination, administration, procurement, financial management, environmental and social safeguards management, and monitoring and evaluation of the project, including the development of checklists for supervision of health facilities, the conduct of third-party verifications by an independent academic institution of the achievement of DLIs, and the carrying out of financial audits of the project. Finally, the fifth component is the contingent emergency response. The objective of the contingent emergency response component, with a provisional zero allocation, is to allow for the reallocation of financing in accordance with the IDA immediate response mechanism in order to provide an immediate response to an eligible crisis or emergency, as needed.