PASA2 – Support Programme for Strengthening the Health System in Guinea

Strengthening governance in the health sector in Guinea to improve access to quality basic healthcare for the population

The Ebola epidemic in Guinea has revealed the alarming health status of people and the weakness of the Guinean health system. This is due to chronic underfunding, limited human resources, the poor condition and inadequacy of health facilities and the lack of governance and leadership.

To address this situation, in late 2015, the Guinean Government adopted a National Health Policy (PNS), which aims to improve the health status of the Guinean population by promoting universal access to essential health services and healthcare. This is how the project to support health (PASA) came about. It was funded by the 10th European Development Fund and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and was implemented from 2013 to 2017. It has supported the institutional functioning of the Ministry of Health at the national and regional levels, the Central Pharmacy of Guinea with its mission to supply essential medicines to public health facilities, and health services in the administrative region of Nzérékoré.

PASA2, a new support programme to strengthen the health system

Following on from the PASA project, the Support Programme for Strengthening the Health System (PASA2) aims to build on the achievements by continuing to strengthen the health system at the central level and in the decentralised departments in the administrative region of Nzérékoré.

It benefits from an overall amount of EUR 26.35m, including EUR 23m funded by the European Union, EUR 2.35m by the German Ministry of Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and EUR 1m by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Ministry for Solidarity and Health.

Drawing on the achievements of the other programmes funded by the European Union, France and Germany, PASA2 aims to strengthen governance in the health sector in order to improve access to quality basic healthcare for the population. This will reduce child mortality and improve maternal health and resilience to epidemiological crises.

An improvement in the governance of the health sector is very much awaited in terms of financial management and human resources management. It will help develop quality healthcare services, the use of health services by mothers and children under five and improve health facilities in the south-east of Guinea, in the administrative region of Nzérékoré, and in the two neighbouring prefectures of Kérouané and Kissidougou.

For further reading: Strengthening the health system in Guinea: the European Union and its partners launch PASA2

The objective: improve the health status of the people of Guinea

The main objective of PASA2 is to improve the health status of mothers and children under five. It has three specific objectives for this purpose:

1) Improve the performance of the Ministry of Health in terms of governance, financial management and human resources management;
2) Promote the use of health services by mothers and children under five in the Guinea Forest Region;
3) Improve health facilities in the Guinea Forest Region.

The activities implemented to achieve these objectives will directly benefit the Guinean Ministry of Health and its central, decentralised and attached departments. The final beneficiaries are the people of Guinea, particularly people in the target area (about 1.7 million) who will use these healthcare services, including women of childbearing age (15-49 years-old) and their partners, newborns and children under five, young people (15-24 years-old), as well as people living with HIV and people with disabilities.

Five components for activities

All the activities planned under the PASA2 programme will be implemented by the German and French public agencies for international technical cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – GIZ and Expertise France) between 2019 and 2023.

• Component 1: Strengthen the institutional capacities of the Ministry of Health in terms of financial governance, human resources and the coordination of the sector  
• Component 2: Strengthen the health districts in the target area
• Component 3: Improve the quality of healthcare services and reproductive and family planning services in the target area
• Component 4: Increase healthcare demand in the target area
• Component 5: Improve health facilities in the target area  

Expertise France will be more specifically involved in the components to support financial management (Component 1), working closely with GIZ, and improve health facilities (Component 5).