The Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA) has recently offered an innovative capacity building programme aimed equipping healthcare leaders with the skills and abilities they need to successfully reform the primary healthcare systems of their states and realize ambitious health targets.
The programme HLA’s Leadership Enhancement and Accountability for the Public Sector (LEAPS) was recently held in Abuja, (January 22nd-25th 2019 a 4-day event being delivered to thirty participants from three Nigerians states.
Over the four-day event, participants received training in strategic thinking, problem-solving, and effective delegation amongst other topics. “In a bid to improve leadership skills, we need to equip healthcare professionals with the tools they need to transform healthcare delivery in their respective state facilities,” Alero Ajayi, programme director HLA said.
Ajayi said, “LEAPS was designed to equip senior managers and administrators in the civil service who work for health ministries or parastatals and, interestingly, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, with the skills and abilities they need to successfully reform the primary healthcare systems of their states and realize ambitious health targets.
“The programme is a rigorous nine-month programme during which participants build their soft skills, grow in leadership presence, and work together in unique cross-ministry teams to execute and effectively manage a health system project. Participants typically represent a cross-section of senior officers from multiple states within the country and multiple agencies within the states.”
She said the 30 participants were selected from three states in Nigeria, adding that so far, through the LEAPS programme, the HLA has engaged with and supported state governments from five of the country’s six geopolitical zones to build the governance capacity of senior health managers working in the civil service.
As part of the convergence, the programme director said participants gave updates on the progress of their state health projects, and several teams were able to highlight significant progress and real impact to the end user as a result of their approaches.
“It was particularly interesting to observe the range of projects being worked on and understand how participants are working as teams’ in-state to accelerate the achievement of the targets they had set for the projects.
“An example of one of the projects being carried by one Northern State team is a drive to increase the number of women who complete all required antenatal health visits, thus reducing their risk of pregnancy-related complications to themselves and to the unborn child,” she added.
However, It was clear from the ease of interactions between participants and faculty that a safe space for knowledge sharing and leadership development had been achieved, and participants through the course of the four-day event gave various testimonials to attest to this, as well as their growth and development as leaders inside and outside of the civil service.
‘This programme has helped me develop self confidence and know my worth as a leader, I have learnt to present myself and be precise in my presentation,” Becky Agu from Nasarawa State, said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
