Dear IHD Colleagues,

Below is our monthly IHD update outlining recent happenings in the Division. We look forward to receiving any feedback you may wish to share with us.

Bonnie Bass and Jeanine Hubler – Cover Girls for Ethics and Compliance

Yes – it is indeed IHD’s own Bonnie Bass and Jeanine Hubler on the cover of the February 2015 issue of Compliance & Ethics Professional magazine. Interviewed by the magazine, Bass and Hubler, Abt senior finance and contracts managers, discuss how Abt’s ethics and compliance programs work across the company’s broad portfolio. Read the article here. Contact: bonnie_bass@abtassoc.com or jeanine_hubler@abtassoc.com.

Top Ten Health Systems Strengthening Cases Selected by USAID and the Winner is…

A Global Call for Cases by the USAID Office of Health Systems’ Marshalling the Evidence Initiative garnered 145 entries from USAID implementing partners engaged in health systems strengthening (HSS). Among the 10 winning submissions were two from IHD: Ethiopia Health Financing Reform: Three Examples of USAID Support was based on work by the bilateral Health Sector Financing Reform (HSFR), now part of the Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project. Congratulations to the HFG Ethiopia team!  The second was the Afghanistan Health Finance Policy case based on work carried out by the former Health Systems 20/20 project. The purpose of the Global Call for Cases is to showcase the impact of USAID's substantial investments in HSS. Read the ten top cases and two honorable mention cases highlighting the breadth and depth of USAID partner work in HSS.  Contact: hailu_zelelew@abtassoc.com.

Jeanna Holtz Publishes on the Value of Claims Analysis in Health Microinsurance

A recently-released paper  that Jeanna Holtz co-wrote for the International Labour Organization explains how health insurance claims data can provide insight into underlying patterns of illness, the treatment-seeking behavior of clients, and the adequacy of health services accessible to them. An analysis of claims data for three health microinsurance schemes in South Asia shows that a handful of common illnesses such as diarrhea or fever, along with trauma and accidents, account for approximately 50 percent of inpatient claim pay-outs. A better analysis of the cause of the claim (including diagnosis) can enable health insurers to identify areas for product and process improvements, leading to improved client value and insurer viability. Contact: jeanna_holtz@abtassoc.com.

Eleven Presentations at Upcoming 2015 Mini-University

Congratulations to all IHD presenters for their abstract acceptances for the Monday, March 2 Mini-University. Sponsored by USAID and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, this annual one-day learning forum is celebrating its 14th year. Mini-University 2015 will offer over 60 sessions in eight tracks: environmental health; family planning and reproductive health; health systems; HIV and AIDS; infectious disease; maternal, child, neonatal health; non-communicable disease and injury; and nutrition. In addition to technical knowledge, the Mini-University offers participants an opportunity to network with a cross-section of professionals. Attendees include students, medical professionals, public health experts, members of the military, USG staff, non-profits, and others interested in global health. Registration for Mini-University 2015 is now open and the event is free and open to the public. The event takes place at the GW University Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC.

SHOPS Publishes on Total Market Approach

The total market approach (TMA) is a process that brings together the public and private health sectors to coordinate policies and programs for greater health impact and sustainability. Francoise Armand, senior private sector advisor for the SHOPS project, and SHOPS project director Susan Mitchell recently published a commentary in Cases in Public Health Communication & Marketing (Volume 8, Supplement 1. Winter 2014), focusing on lessons learned for today’s TMAs from multisectoral approaches implemented in family planning and other health areas over the past decades. Also included in the supplement was a piece, “Revisiting a Total Market Approach to Contraceptive Security in Honduras,” by SHOPS staff Bettina Brunner, Martha Merida, Dawn Crosby, and Leslie Miles, highlighting the importance of incorporating a measurement and evaluation component into TM activities, as well as the pivotal role of a public sector convener.  To launch the supplement, on January 30, George Washington University hosted a panel of supplement contributors, including Francoise. Contact: susan_mitchell@abtassoc.com  and bettina_brunner@abtassoc.com.

Community Input Key to Improving Public Health in Tajikistan

In Tajikistan, Abt’s USAID Quality Health Care Project works with community leaders, including religious leaders and women activists, to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of tuberculosis (TB), and to communicate the message that TB is fully curable when diagnosed early.  These interventions led community leaders to refer 323 people to primary health care centers for TB testing from October through December 2014. Testing revealed that 42 (13 percent) of the individuals tested presented with active TB and were immediately started on treatment.  This success is testament to the growing role of community involvement in improving public health in the country.  Contact:  liza_myglina@abtassoc.com or jeffrey_barnes@abtassoc.com.

PATHS2 Shares Six Years of Results and Learning at Dissemination Workshop

Nearly 200 participants gathered on January 21 in Kaduna State to hear the best practices, lessons learned, and constraints encountered during six years of PATHS2 project implementation, especially in the northern states of Kaduna, Kano, and Jigawa. Participants came from the Federal Ministry of Health, the ministries of health of the three states, professional and regulatory bodies, other health developmental partners, pre-service institutions, traditional and religious leaders including the Emir of Kano, beneficiaries, civil society organizations, and the media.  Government officials, beneficiaries, and others provided striking testimonials to the impact of PATHS2 work. One local government official stated: “Last year, Sankara primary health care facility recorded 786 deliveries without a single case of mortality. If not for the intervention of PATHS2 in setting up the facility health committee, our women and children would have continued to die…” PATHS2 work will continue until July 2016 in two southern states, Enugu and Lagos, with significant partnerships with the private sector. Contact Mike Egboh at megboh@paths2.org.

IHD Staffers Tell Us the Latest on Ebola

IHD’s Peter Cowley and Beth Brennan attended the Ebola 2015 Oxford Symposia at Oxford University in January which featured presentations on clinical diagnosis and treatment, cultural barriers to containment, case tracing, and disease response.  As the UK primarily supports the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, most presentations focused on Ebola-response activities in Sierra Leone. Key highlights include:

·         Ebola is currently being contained; however, the sources of new infections are becoming more difficult to find. As the rainy season looms, enhanced surveillance and disease response are crucial to stop the spread and get Ebola cases down to zero.

·         Ecologists are using predictive models for bat migration to determine where Ebola has a likelihood of reappearing. This information is essential to proactively introduce culturally-appropriate BCC messaging in potentially affected areas, as well as scaled-up disease surveillance.             

·         Funding for post-Ebola efforts is imminent with a strong focus on health systems strengthening and private sector engagement, two of Abt’s core competencies.

Contact: beth_brennan@abtassoc.com  or peter_cowley@abtassoc.com.

Judith Moore Takes Helm of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Portfolio in IHD

IHD’s new MNCH Strategic Lead is a nurse/midwife with more than 30 years’ experience in public health programming with a focus on women and children. Judith has worked in a clinical and technical advisory capacity for both UK and US governments, as well as for major NGOs, including Save the Children UK and USA, a Gates-funded Saving Newborn Lives grant, John Snow Inc.  on the USAID Child Survival Program BASICS, and JHPIEGO. She has taught clinical midwifery, trained health workers, been deployed to several major humanitarian emergencies, and served in diverse program management roles and as a technical advisor at country, regional, and headquarters levels. Most recently, she comes from a position as Senior Director for Women and Children’s Health at Project HOPE, where she gained experience with private sector initiatives, including working with major corporations. Judith holds an MSc degree in public health from the UK, a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a fellowship in epidemiology from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Welcome Judith! 

Bethesda Staff Embedded in Field Projects

In response to the desire for field-level assignments and experience expressed by many of our home-office based staff, several IHD projects recently have crafted 2-4 month training assignments and project management support visits. These visits enable staff to expand their competencies in specific technical areas, project management, capacity building, and field-level implementation. The Division currently has seven staff members from the US in the field for an extended period of time implementing a variety of tasks including:

·         Jean Margaritis in Kenya working with the AfyaInfo management team to develop and implement a strategy to respond to recommendations from the project’s mid-term evaluation

·         James White, Jordan Tuchman, and Kenya Datari in Mozambique supporting the CHASS-SMT team in implementing the Health Systems Strengthening Graduation Path at the district-level to build district MOH management capacity to further improve HIV-related outcomes

·         Jennifer Burnett in South Sudan supporting the HSSP team to implement health information systems at state, county, and facility levels and develop county health department bulletins with the data to use for decision-making

·         Tim Irgens and Robin Keeley in Jordan to help the SHOPS Jordan team close down the project, including ensuring that all technical deliverables and end-of-project documentation are completed on time and with high quality

What’s in a Name – A Lot! Announcing TPOs

After joint review and discussion of several options, the Technical Coordinator community agreed with IHD management to replace the Technical Coordinator title with Technical Project Officer. The title does not replace the Abt title (i.e., Associate or Sr. Associate). Effective immediately, please use the Technical Project Officer title when referring to former Technical Coordinators who work on bilateral projects. Those who are part of a centrally funded project (HFG, AIRS, or SHOPS,) do not have to use this title if there is a different title in use to describe their role within their project. To reach out to the Technical Project Officer community as a whole, please note their new listserv name, All_IHD_Technical_Project_Officers. Contact: margarita_fernandez@abtassoc.com.

Upcoming Conferences: Abstract Due Dates, Notification Dates, and Acceptances

If you plan to submit an abstract or have an abstract accepted, please notify Liz Nugent.

Global Health Mini-University (March 2, 2015, Washington, DC) – 20 abstracts submitted, 11 accepted

World Social Marketing Conference (April 19-20, Sydney, Australia) – 1 abstract submitted, 1 accepted + 1 special session

Population Association of America (April 30-May 2, 2015, San Diego, CA) – 7 abstracts submitted, 4 accepted

International Health Economics Association (July 12-15, 2015, Milan, Italy)

International AIDS Society Conference (July 19-22, 2015, Vancouver, Canada)

Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference (October 18-21, Mexico City, Mexico) – call for abstracts opens soon

American Public Health Association (October 31-November 4, 2015, Chicago, IL)

International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa - ICASA (November 8-13, 2015, Tunis, Tunisia) – call for abstracts opens soon

International Conference on Family Planning (November 9-12, 2015, Nusa Dua, Indonesia) – abstracts due May 1, 2015

Welcomes, Goodbyes – A Sampling

Welcome: Judith Moore

Goodbye: Kate Cho

Looking to Hire

The below positions are currently available in the U.S. All IHD openings can be found at: www.abtassociates.com/careers.

• Associate, Req 19201 – Posted 2/4/15
• Associate / Business Development and Technical Coordinator (Nigeria Focus), Req 17601 – Posted 2/4/15
• Principal Associate / Health Policy and Governance Expert, Req 17881 – Posted 1/13/15
• Business Development Manager, International Health – Req 17741 – Posted 1/12/15
• Principal Associate / Portfolio Manager, Req 15321 – Posted 11/25/14
• Finance & Contract Analyst, Req 15021 – Posted 11/14/2014
• Senior Technical Writer / Editor, Req 13424 –  Posted 10/17/14

SAVE THE DATE!

February 26 – Mental Health and Well-Being: From Risk to Resilience Webinar (thierry_van_bastelaer@abtassoc.com)

March 18 – IHD Townhall

April 22 – IHD Global Staff Meeting (9:00am EST)

June 8-12 – IHD Chief of Party Conference

HR MATTERS: FROM CLARISSA PETERSON

We have asked Clarissa to contribute to our monthly e-newsletter to make sure that all IHD is informed of new HR initiatives and tools that can help us in our daily work.

Grow Your Career at Abt – Have you ever had a manager give you feedback about something you could improve upon?  Struggled with finding the right words to give feedback to a peer on a project?  To help address these and other workplace issues, Abt is making available to all staff a new tool called Lominger. The tool describes a set of core competencies for you to explore and develop both in your current and future roles and provides specific examples of things you can do to improve.  Lominger will be available for all employees worldwide. See the email from Experience HR with all the details and a charge code for you to become familiar with this exciting new resource!

FROM DIANA’S DESK

Working Together to Ensure a Positive, Fulfilling, and Productive Work Environment for IHD  –  I am deeply committed to ensuring a work environment across all IHD that allows each of us to perform at our highest level, fully engaged and continuously developing professionally. As such, I recently convened a Performance Improvement Committee composed of colleagues representing diverse levels of US- based staff to gather input and make recommendations regarding staff engagement, satisfaction, and professional development. A similar committee will be composed for our internationally-based colleagues. These two committees will also be tapped to work with our EAC members to develop an action plan for IHD, aligned with Abt corporate responses (such as the new tools noted above in Clarissa's note), to address critical areas highlighted in the annual EAC Employee Survey. I look forward to working together to make our workplace the very best it can be. Stay tuned for updates in 2015!

Sent to ALL IHD US & Field & MAG