The role of contractual arrangements in improving health sector ...

Morocco
There are many supporting documents available at the level of the decentralized
services, including reports on the advancement of activities and projects, statistical tables, and
annual activity reports.
Contractual arrangements based on cooperative relations
Partnership with nongovernmental organizations
The nongovernmental organizations active in the field of health were created by civil
society in an effort to address difficulties in health care and the emergence of chronic diseases,
the costs of which are a heavy burden for families in the absence of social services coverage.
In general, the nongovernmental organizations were created by health professionals to
mobilize efforts towards a public health problem, such as kidney disease, infant diabetes,
infant cancer, AIDS, etc. Sometimes these nongovernmental organizations work in the public
hospitals side by side with the professionals of these health institutions.
The efforts of nongovernmental organizations in these cases are intended to augment the
efforts of the State, not to replace them. Their actions in general complement each other. The
public health institutions turn to nongovernmental organizations to carry out different actions,
such as:
Providing diagnostic and treatment activities: cancer, sexually transmitted infections, heart
disease, kidney disease, diabetes)
Providing family planning, such as through supplying contraceptive products, training health
professionals and counterparts (e.g. on AIDS) and providing public information,
education and awareness (trachoma control, etc.).
The public contribution to the financing of health-related activities of nongovernmental
organizations include the provision of annual subsidies and medical supplies (medicines,
contraceptives, various other supplies), assignment of facilities, equipment and office
furniture, and sharing of human resources.
The nongovernmental organizations work with the public health institutions. An
agreement is established for this purpose stating the contribution and engagements of both
parties as well as the duration of this agreement. However, such agreements usually do not
include the means and tools necessary to control, monitor and follow up the input of
nongovernmental organizations.
In 2003y, the Prime Minister issued an Act (no. 7/2003) establishing a new partnership
environment intended to be more flexible and to improve coordination and control through
use of a results-based management framework. Through this Act, the government seeks to
develop new relationships with nongovernmental organizations through the renewed
partnership policy on one hand, aimed at optimizing the working environment of partners, and
on the other hand, defining with precision the intervention framework in order to optimize the
use of resources, focus the partnerships on needy populations and guarantee transparency.
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