With a grant from LHSS, the Jamaican health care firm Online Medics is supporting the government’s COVID-19 vaccination effort while gaining valuable new business capacities. “LHSS allowed me to think in the long term – where I wanted my company to go and what I need to do to get it there,” says owner Alex Tracey.

This brief highlights learnings from working with local government leaders of two city corporations and ten district-level municipalities from the Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, LHSS has built relationships with ministries, departments, and development partners to support its objective of assisting urban primary health care delivery. This newsletter provides detailed information about the latest news, updates, and activities in Bangladesh.

This communications strategy outlines how the LHSS team will support the private sector providers in implementing their communication plans.

The LHSS Jamaica Grants Strategy guides implementation of the grants-under-contract component of the LHSS Jamaica activity, with the goal of increasing the capacity of local organizations to prepare, obtain, and manage successful health systems strengthening projects and activities.  

LHSS conducted this rapid assessment to better understand the current and potential role of the private health sector in Jamaica's COVID-19 response.

Since vaccines became available in 2021, only 26 percent of Jamaicans have been vaccinated – a far cry from the country’s goal of 65 percent by March 2022. Religious communities were among the victims of the misinformation causing vaccine hesitancy, with many of the country’s Christians believing the vaccines represented “the mark of the beast.” In response, the government called on church leaders to play a more prominent role in the country’s vaccination effort.

Both Ghana and Bangladesh have implemented health budget accountability mechanisms. Their experiences offer practical lessons that other countries can adapt to their own budget execution needs. 

This report describes key private sector players and their types of engagement in malaria programming in Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Uganda.

Late last year, health sector practitioners from eight countries met to tackle the issue head-on as participants in the Joint Learning Network Health Budget Execution Learning Exchange. They made meaningful progress.

On Friday, February 25, LHSS Jamaica hosted a signing ceremony with the Jamaica Ministry of Health and Wellness and USAID to launch the Private Sector COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Partnership.

Poor budget execution results in inefficiencies that undermine the ability of health agencies to improve access to needed health services and improve population health. Yet billions of dollars in unexecuted health budgets are returned to treasuries every year. 

The proliferation of mobile telephones and advances in digital financial technology have created opportunities for faster progress towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.