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Reportback: Capacity Building Technical Seminar
by Fatima Suleman and Wendy Hall
2001-11-16
The Equity Project hosted a Capacity Building Technical Seminar between the 1st and 2nd of November 2001, at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg. About 100 health managers and workers attended the seminar from all 9 provinces, with the aim of sharing and exploring lessons on the role of capacity building and training in strengthening health services delivery. It was hoped that gaps could be identified as well as innovative training models used.
Many interesting presentations were made on issues ranging from Gaps and role of institutions of higher education in increasing public health capacity to The utility of on site training for improving clinical competence. Small group discussions then drew out key messages from these presentations.
Seminar participants raised a number of critical issues regarding capacity building. A lot of training has been done, but these have not been sufficiently analysed to understand the underlying factors resulting in success or failure of the training method employed. There is a need for emphasis on quality of training rather than quantity, was the feedback from one of the small groups.
Another group pointed out that, Training puts pressure on front line workers as they are expected to perform, but they are not provided with an environment in which to perform. Training is done without recognition of where the people are coming from - their culture, position in society, etc. Most health workers are female - in many places these female health workers are not empowered to implement what they have learnt.
According to Dr Yogan Pillay, the participants identified the following as critical issues for successful implementation of capacity building, which then leads to improvements in service delivery: inspirational leadership; vision; development of learning organisations that nurture innovations; and alignment of systems and practices by having the right balance between flexibility and cohesion as well as between centralization and decentralisation.
For capacity building and training, one needs to consider the diversity of settings in this country - urban, rural, developed, developing, etc. All training and capacity building needs to be tailor made for each district or facility, and conducted as close to the point of delivery as possible. The health service delivery is a complex issue that needs to be taken seriously. The assessment of training needs to ensure that this complexity is assessed.
The Equity Project hosted a Capacity Building Technical Seminar between the 1st and 2nd of November 2001, at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg.
About 100 health managers and workers attended the seminar from all 9 provinces, with the aim of sharing and exploring lessons on the role of capacity building and training in strengthening health services delivery.
It was hoped that gaps could be identified as well as innovative training models used.
Many interesting presentations were made on issues ranging from Gaps and role of institutions of higher education in increasing public health capacity to The utility of on site training for improving clinical competence. Small group discussions then drew out key messages from these presentations.
Seminar participants raised a number of critical issues regarding capacity building. A lot of training has been done, but these have not been sufficiently analysed to understand the underlying factors resulting in success or failure of the training method employed. There is a need for emphasis on quality of training rather than quantity, was the feedback from one of the small groups.
Another group pointed out that, Training puts pressure on front line workers as they are expected to perform, but they are not provided with an environment in which to perform. Training is done without recognition of where the people are coming from - their culture, position in society, etc. Most health workers are female - in many places these female health workers are not empowered to implement what they have learnt.
According to Dr Yogan Pillay, the participants identified the following as critical issues for successful implementation of capacity building, which then leads to improvements in service delivery: inspirational leadership; vision; development of learning organisations that nurture innovations; and alignment of systems and practices by having the right balance between flexibility and cohesion as well as between centralization and
decentralisation".
For capacity building and training, one needs to consider the diversity of settings in this country - urban, rural, developed, developing, etc. All training and capacity building needs to be tailor made for each district or facility, and conducted as close to the point of delivery as possible.
The health service delivery is a complex issue that needs to be taken seriously. The assessment of training needs to ensure that this complexity is assessed.
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