Results for Development Institute (R4D), in partnership with the Aspen Institute's Global Health and Development Program is currently holding a 3.5 day cross-country peer learning workshop in Addis Ababa with delegations from its five Ministerial Leadership Initiative (MLI) countries. MLI is a four-year program that seeks to strengthen the leadership capacity of ministries of health in Ethiopia, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, and Sierra Leone to advance policy in three interrelated areas: health financing for equity, donor harmonization in health, and reproductive health.

During this week's Learning Collaborative Forum (LCF) each country will have the opportunity to showcase work completed through MLI and to discuss the challenges they face in achieving their objectives.

The forum is designed so that country delegations will have ample opportunity to learn the approaches their counterparts are utilizing and ultimately understand the critical role leadership and country-driven initiatives play in advancing their country's health priorities. Topics that will be covered include reducing financial barriers in healthcare, liaising with the press to implement policy reform, donor harmonization, alignment, and negotiation, tracking and measuring performance management, health system models, and reproductive health. There will also be a session on evaluating the MLI program's design and its approach to providing technical assistance.

The discussions throughout the week will lead to a capstone policy dialogue about the importance of country ownership and leadership and how both can be fostered. This event will be attended by high level development partners and by the MLI delegations.

Throughout the event, John Donnelly, freelance journalist formerly of the Boston Globe, will be blogging live from the LCF.

Click here to read his blog posts.