Through the Ministerial Leadership for Global Health (MLI), R4D responds to policy needs articulated by ministries of health in Africa and Asia and helps foster capacity development and country leadership in equitable health financing and donor harmonization. MLI’s most recent newsletter highlights the high-impact series of activities that MLI has facilitated in the past few months. Recent activities include:

• A Ministerial Leadership Training in Senegal which helped enhance the individual, team, collective, and transformational leadership skills of the Minister of Health and his senior team.

• Workshops to reinforce the principles of negotiation and global health diplomacy for Ministry of Health and Population staff in Nepal.

• A high-level visit by former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, to Sierra Leone to discuss maternal health and barriers to accessing reproductive healthcare with President Koroma.

In the coming months, MLI will continue to carry its work forward by bringing all five of its focus countries together for a Learning Collaborative Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in early December. This forum will allow countries to share successes and challenges from the implementation of health policy reforms, analyze the critical role of leadership in these reforms, and augment technical skills in selected areas such as effectively managing policy communications and negotiating with development partners. MLI is also co-organizing the Harmonization for Health in Africa regional workshop on “Financial Access to Health Care for the Poor,” to be held in Dakar, Senegal, in early November. The workshop will allow practitioners to share experiences and technical challenges they are facing in implementing governmental decisions to improve access to health services for the poor (ranging from free care policies to health insurance).

Learn more about R4D’s work with health ministries.