Australian aid ALA Fellowship Awards

Date: 2011
WHO CC involvement: Michele Rumsey, Professor John Daly, Professor James Buchan, Professor Caroline Homer, Assoc. Professor Lin Lock in partnership with SPCNMOA

The aim of the Australian aid Australian Leadership Fellowship Awards program is to strengthen regional relationships and build leadership capacity. This was achieved by working closely with the counterpart organization, The South Pacific Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers Alliance (SPCNMOA) and senior nurses and midwives in Pacific countries to develop and provide a regional skills development program. The SPCNMOA identified the following five priority areas around which the program was developed; leadership, policy development and implementation, human resources for health (HRH), regulation and data literacy for decision-making.

The 2011 program objectives were designed to increase local capacity to meet changing population and health system needs by providing tools and strategies and developing supportive nursing and midwifery networks across the region. These objectives were also met by facilitating the development and implementation of Action Plans in the priority areas which were relevant to the participating countries health development plans as they were specifically chosen by the Fellows in conjunction with their in-country mentors.

Significant achievement of the objectives was evident in the breadth and depth of collaboration and participation in the delivery of the three month leadership program, which continues in country with Fellows and their mentors.

The impact of these courses and events will aid the ongoing work within the WHO CC UTS to build leadership capacity within the region. New leadership relationships have been formed at country and regional levels through this program. Strategies to maintain contact with in-country Fellows and mentors have been outlined and all have agreed to a plan for ongoing contact by the SPCNMOA and WHO CC UTS through 2012. With continuing programs a critical mass of nursing and midwifery leaders across the South Pacific countries can be attained. A continued Australian aid ALA program will run during 2012.

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.