Annual Programme of Work 2009 - Ministry of Health

4. 2009 PRIORITIES
Sector priorities for 2009 are aimed at consolidating achievements of 2008, expansion of key
interventions aimed at reducing the burden of diseases and step up disease control activities
with particular emphasis on polio eradication. Improving maternal and neonatal health and
the consolidation of gains made with the High Impact and Rapid Delivery (HIRD) and
Regenerative Health and Nutrition (RHN) programmes will be kept in focus. Priority will
also be given to the introduction of improvements in the human resource management by
rationalising productivity indices to assess performance of health workforce.
The Inter Agency Leadership Committee (IALC), which is made up of heads of agencies
under the Ministry of Health, in the course of the year also reviewed key programmes and
activities and provided priority areas to be tracked during the year. The priorities outlined for
the year therefore represents those that are scheduled for 2009 in the Five Year Programme of
Work (2007-2011), ongoing interventions requiring more intense follow up and those that
have been agreed upon by the IALC, development partners and other stakeholders.
The Five Year Programme of Work nominates a set of priorities for 2009. These remain
central to the framework for planning and budgeting for the year and will guide overall sector
actions. These are:
• Target safe food and water
• Target quality of clinical care including referrals and emergency services
• Rationalize facility and service availability
• Strengthen Health sector budget and PFM systems
In the course of the year a number of issues emerged leading to the identification of other
areas requiring attention. Various fora and reports such as the IALC, the Consultative
Meeting on MDG5, the Round table Conference on Human Resources and the
recommendations of the 2007 annual review, provided opportunities for the sector to take on
additional priorities for the year. The recent isolation of wild polio virus in the northern
region has also contributed to the additional priorities for 2009. These include the following:
• Improve maternal and neonatal health
• Intensify efforts to reduce the burden of Non Communicable Diseases
• Intensify EPI activities especially towards polio eradication
• Improve capacity to scale up coverage of ART
• Improve human resource productivity
• Improve existing information monitoring and evaluation systems
• Ensure commodity security
• Complete work on harmonization of Health Bills
• Rationalize and improve claims management under the NHIS
• Improve role of Regional Health Authorities in increasing performance
• Improve staff attitude at all levels
• Institute measures for gender mainstreaming
Priorities of programmes will continue to adopt approaches of reaching the poor within the
Poverty Reduction strategy. Capital investments will continue to prioritize training
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