Project Information
| Project Name: | IRKULGABA |
| Project Description: | |
| The Project Health Service Provision through Effective Local Governance Irkulgaba was developed for rendering local governance and resource allocation more participatory and efficient, CSCOMs will be managed better and more sustainable than if the commune received health sector specific support alone. During the four years, the project is intended to help vulnerable and marginalized populations in Mali’s northern, remote, Gao District, particularly female-headed households and nomads, to obtain quality health care through effective local governance. During this time, the project is intended directly 17,640 pregnant women and children under 5 years old are the primary target population for the high impact health services in the seven communes in Gao district. A major challenge facing Mali, particularly in Gao is to overcome resource and institutional constraints to ensure effective delivery of key social services to its citizens. The health sector faces particularly daunting challenges in terms of ensuring that health service providers have the resources, skills and inclination necessary to respond to the expressed needs of local communities. The decentralization can play a vital role in terms of representing the demands of local populations and helping community health centres (CSCOMs) to obtain the support and financing they require to be effective. Poor quality health care delivery by health workers in Gao can be explained by the following constraints: Difficult working conditions, attitudinal barriers, and insufficient technical and interpersonal skills. Technical barriers can be aggravated by poor organizational support and inadequate financial resources for supervision, training, equipment and supplies for community health centres (CSCOMs), which are managed by local community health associations (ASACOs). Resource constraints are exacerbated by cases of poor management and corruption or a lack of political will. This creates a vicious cycle, where officials complain of meagre resources but citizens are loathe to pay taxes when they lack confidence that their scant, hard-earned resources will be well-spent. Much remains to be done to simultaneously improve state revenue generation, fiscal management, and civic-minded behaviour on the part of citizens. The Irkulgaba Project, aims to help vulnerable and marginalized populations in Mali’s northern, remote, Gao District, particularly female-headed households and nomads, to obtain quality health care through effective local governance. Also, this project aims to improve links between local governance and the health sector. The key hypothesis of the project approach is that if the project succeeds in rendering local government and resource allocation more participatory and efficient, CSCOMs will be better managed and more sustainable than if the commune had received health sector specific support alone. The local governance and health care improvements promoted by the project will benefit the entire population of the district, and will have positive spill-over effects into other sectors. | |
| Country: | Mali (View Country Profile) |
| Sector: | Capacity Building/Institutional Strengthening |
| Type: | Development |
| Project Number: | MLI067 |
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