Support to the health sector in Chad: a positive 2017 assessment for the PASST2 project
This meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr. Hamid Djabar, Secretary General of the Chadian Ministry of Public Health, in the presence of the Director of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the representative of UNAIDS in Chad and the coordinator of the PASST2 project.
Improving maternal and child health in Chad
The 4-year project (2016-2019) aims to contribute to improving maternal and child health and to reducing maternal, neonatal and child mortality in Chad. It is consequently in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 3) and France’s strategic priorities for global health.
Expertise France, which is one of the operators for the project implementation, is supporting 30 health facilities (national, regional and district hospitals and health centres), taking into account the Revitalisation Plan for health centres in the cities of Ndjamena, Moundou and Abéché. The objective is to upgrade these health facilities and thereby improve health coverage in the regions supported.
Mobilising French public expertise
To implement its activities, Expertise France has established partnerships with French public structures and associations: the Public Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), Poitiers University Hospital, Annecy Genevois Hospital, Quimper Hospital, the French Movement for Family Planning and Actions Santé Femmes.
The originality of the project lies in its operating method: mentoring by multidisciplinary French teams (midwives, senior registered nurses, gynaecologists/obstetricians, paediatricians, anaesthetists, family planning counsellors and trainers) in order to build the capacities of healthcare providers.
In 2017, 49 missions were conducted to build the skills of 917 healthcare workers on themes related to maternal, neonatal and child health, as well as family planning.
Expertise France has also developed a partnership with the technical departments of the Ministry of Public Health, the Mother and Child Hospital and the executive teams of the health delegations in the districts supported in order to conduct facilitating, integrated and joint supervision missions with the aim of improving the quality of service provision.
Community health
The project is also supporting the implementation of the Community Health Strategic Plan (2015-2018), developed by the Chadian Ministry of Public Health and its partners. Indeed, it is essential to involve communities in the definition and implementation of health policies in order to effectively and sustainably strengthen health systems.
In this respect, the team of Expertise France’s health country office in Chad and the Department for the Organisation of Health Services (DOSS) of the Chadian Ministry of Public Health have organised a series of training courses for social workers and community health workers in the three cities where the project is being implemented.
The training focuses on the basic concepts and key messages of maternal, neonatal and child health, as well as communication techniques. A total of 13 social workers and 167 community health workers have been trained and deployed in the field.
More about PASST 2 
