Australian aid ALA Fellowship Awards
Australian aid ALA Fellowship Awards
Date: 2009 - 2010
WHO CC involvement: Michele Rumsey, Professor John Daly, Professor Denise Dignam, Marie Heartfield, Gerard Goodwin-Moore, Professor Christine Duffield, Professor James Buchan, Professor Caroline Homer in partnership with SPCNMOA.
The aim of the Australian aid Australian Leadership Fellowship Awards program was 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 2009 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 continued in country with Fellows and their mentors. The impact of the program continued throughout 2010 where the participants development of leadership capacity was reported as greater awareness of health system and nursing and midwifery issues, new knowledge and skills in the five priority areas, establishment and participation in new networks and exposure to new and relevant resources. A 12 month evaluation showed many fellows had progressed to more senior positions with the health service said all fellows where continuing to make progress on their projects.
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 2010. A continued Australian aidALA program will run during 2011.
