221.661.01
Project Development for Primary Health Care in Developing Countries

Prerequisite:

There are no prerequisites for this course

Description:

Take this course if you want to learn how to design and implement a Primary Health Care (PHC) project in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This will help you understand all the components of a project, and to understand how these are packaged to respond to a donor agency's request for proposals, addressing the common donor stipulations. Designing PHC or community health projects is a very common activity in international health. Even if your career will not be directing you to this activity, you will very likely be reviewing the proposals of others or writing requests for proposals (RFA). If you see these in your future, then this course will help you.

Allows participants to design a Primary Health Care (PHC) project in a low or middle-income country. Students learn how to navigate needs and limitations, and utilize resources available. Focuses on project design, project implementation and evaluation. Students select one of several Request for Proposals (RFA) for a specific situation, conduct a needs assessment, create a problem statement, set goals and objectives, and a theory of change for this proposed project. Students learn how to address community participation, human resources and their training and supervision, project information, approaches to sustainability, logistics of service delivery, project budgeting and financial management, monitoring, and evaluation, and finally close out of a project. At the conclusion, students develop a proposal ready for submission to a donor that embodies their PHC project design responsive to the RFA.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the need for a project to improve health services or introduce new approaches or interventions
2. Create a background section and problem statement which considers the cultural environment and traditional practices of a population which would need to be included in the project design and plans for its implementation
3. Conduct a 30-cluster household survey to substantiate and quantify needs identified
4. Write realistic, appropriate and measurable project objectives
5. Develop an implementation strategy for a primary health care project
6. Know how to develop a Human Resources plan and to manage project personnel
7. Create a health monitoring and evaluation component for the project
8. Write a budget and the narrative summary for the project you have designed

Methods of Assessment:

This course is evaluated as follows:

• 25% Midterm
• 50% Final PHC proposal
• 25% Participation

Instructor Consent:

Consent required for all students

Consent Note:

MSPH in Health Systems are required to take this course. All other students must request consent from the instructor

For consent, contact:

gburnham@jhsph.edu

Special Comments:

MSPH in Health Systems are required to take this course. All other students must request consent from the instructor