Weblog

New Blog: “No gain in depending so much on business”

April 2013 - Willem van de Put, director of HealthNet TPO, would have preferred to respond positively on minister Lilianne Ploumen’s plans for Dutch development policy, however her recent policy note leaves him no alternative but to respond within a ‘framework of incomprehension’. Whereas the UK and Norway double their budgets for international cooperation –reasoning along the same global developments - the Netherlands decide to do the opposite. The Dutch plan is to cut budgets with 1 billion euros and to present it as ‘new policy’. Can things still get worse?

A little update: social protection and HNTPO

November 2012, by Willem van de Put - Amidst all talk about funds, business plans and governance I would like to give you a little update on some of the issues that are currently high on the agenda, and in development in programmes in Burundi, Cambodia, Myanmar, and hopefully South Sudan. Central to the raison d’etre of HNTPO is the relation between health, specific psychosocial problems in fragile states, and the search for interventions that influence one through the other.

Micro-insurances proposal in top-10

October 2012 – by Wim Overbeeke – In my previous blog I talked about our new insurance project. Last Wednesday I was getting ready to go to Bujumbura airport to travel to the Netherlands, when the Dutch embassy called me with the great news that we are invited to submit a “full proposal” for the project.

Long live the king?

October 2012 - by Willem van de Put - Last week I was in Cambodia to monitor the micro-insurance project, and help start an international study on violence in Cambodia. In the capital city, Phnom Penh, I witnessed the arrival of the body of Norodom Sihanouk, mercurial ex-monarch of Cambodia.

Preparations insurance project and the internal organization

August 2012, by Wim Overbeeke – Pending the decision on additional funding for the micro insurance project by the Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, we already started some preliminary activities. I also started working on the internal organization of HealthNet TPO Burundi…

Achmea Foundation finances new micro-insurance project Burundi

July 2012, by Wim Overbeeke - Last week I was back in the Netherlands for meetings at Achmea and HealthNet TPO. Just before my departure I received the first signals that the project for micro-insurance in Burundi was approved by the Board of the Achmea Foundation. For several reasons we are very pleased with this...

Collecting health information in South Sudan

July 2012, by Oren Jalon - Gathering health information seems simple to those who live in a world with computers, networks, reliable electricity and well trained doctors: the doctor has all your personal information that behind the scenes travels to through corridors of electrical wiring to complex databases. In a low resource setting like South Sudan, things are completely different. ..

Happy Independence day South Sudan!

July 2012, by Aletta Jansen -Last year was the big day, celebrations in every corner of this brand new nation: “Justice, Liberty, Prosperity”. Today (July 9th) is the one year anniversary of South Sudan, that marks the first year of the nation being owned and run by South Sudanese after the decades of fighting. The sense of pride and ownership is tangible: Are these concepts defining this new nation?

Team Building Workshop at HNTPO–South Sudan

May 2012, by Oren Jalon - On April 20 and 21, HealthNet TPO South Sudan held a teambuilding workshop to help improve communication and teambuilding skills. As HealthNet TPO we work for and with communities. An office is also a community…

A security update from Wau, South Sudan

June 2012, by Aletta Jansen – The year 2012 saw a sharp increase in violence and fighting in South Sudan. The month of April saw the height of it, with all round fears of a full blown war between South Sudan and Sudan. As most news reports will inform you, the clashes stem from demarcating the disputed border regions, the amount South Sudan should pay to use Sudan’s oil pipeline of Sudan, Abyei region claim, accusations of supporting rebel groups and the difficult situation of refugees on both sides. In addition to these, there is the complicated and rich historical context these disputes take place in….

Last blog Marieke: "All good things come to an end…"

June, 2012, by Marieke van der Vliet - The month of June is coming to a close and this means that my involvement in the Knowledge Management (KM) project is ending. What are the outcomes of 10 months of work to integrate KM in the Burundi office? Did we manage to introduce a more explicit culture of sharing and is the organization as a whole better able to access information, to store it and apply it? In short: has the HNTPO Burundi office integrated KM into its daily practices?

"Gorillas and guerrillas"

June 2012, by Wim Overbeeke - I just returned from Goma (Congo). On behalf of HealthNet TPO I am in the Steering Committee of the “Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation”. Prior to the trip I was a little bit nervous. There are a lot of tensions in Noth Kivu lately; roaming armed warriors, mutinous soldiers, and people fleeing. Just before the border with Congo I passed a major new refugee camp…

"Income protection insurance in Burundi"

May 2012, by Wim Overbeeke - Again I got many responses to my blog. There is a great demand for a more content related blog about the relationship between HealthNet TPO and Achmea. So here is a contribution on how we work together with the Achmea Foundation on insurance solutions in remote areas...

"To the inland"

April 2012, by Wim Overbeeke - In the past weeks I have visited all our offices within the country. I was curious about what I would find, as the last time was 25 years ago. To get there, you have to go into the mountains, up to 2000 meters. Many things have changed; now it takes much longer to get out of the city than it used to do. Bujumbura has grown

"Introduction Wim Overbeeke"

March 2012, by Wim Overbeeke - It is rain season and the daily rain shower has just fallen in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. The heat has been washed from the air. I arrived 2 weeks ago and already becoming pretty settled here. I am posted with HealthNet TPO in Burundi by the Achmea ‘silver pool’ (Achmea is a large Dutch insurance company).

"Working as a team is something you can learn"

April 2012, by Marieke van der Vliet - A team that delivers tangible results in the field and that is based on collaboration, trust, effectiveness and transparency. That is what I would like to achieve in Burundi. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done as real teamwork takes changing long established patterns and routines people have. How do I make that happen? Knowledge management literature provides interesting guiding and methods to change behaviour.

‘The HR and IT approach of Knowledge Management’

March 2012, by Marieke van der Vliet - Within Knowledge Management (KM) there are two approaches, each with their specific view on how KM can succeed. There is the HR-approach and the IT-approach. I my view one approach is not better than the other. Instead, I want to embrace both approaches for a successful implementation of KM within HealthNet TPO.

‘Mutual learning’

February 2012, by Marieke van der Vliet – “There is no universal understanding of what knowledge is. We all ‘know’ the world through a combination of our education, culture, language and belief, and just as importantly, our actual physical realities, gender and socio-economic environment. How life is known, is how it is experienced and understood. For anyone dealing with ‘knowledge’ the question is how to act effectively in an environment of multiple knowledges.”(Powell)

‘Showing what we do’

January 2012, by Marieke van der Vliet - As I wrote in my last blog, most of the work of HealthNet TPO (HNTPO) takes place in the field. To be more precise: it takes place in the communities of people that lead their daily life in the villages in the rolling hills of Burundi.

Knowledge Management tools

By Marieke van der Vliet - “These priorities will now be translated into activities tobring us in a ‘learning mode’ that will contribute to the quality of our work.” With this sentence I closed my first blog in September. This month I have been studying and experimenting different ways in which I can put the Burundi office in a learning mode with more staff interaction and better links between the various activities that HealthNet TPO implements.

‘Me, myself and knowledge’

By Marieke van der Vliet - ‘Knowledge goes further than data and information. The first link in the chain is data. Add context and interpretation and the data becomes information. Information only becomes knowledge when it is combined with skills, attitudes and experiences. In other words: knowledge is about how information is used. That is why knowledge cannot be seen in isolation from the people who have to use it, or from the social, political and cultural contexts that give meaning to information’. (M. Weggeman)

Piraten en hongerlijders (Dutch)

By Willem van de Put, General Director HealthNet TPO - Unfortunately this blog is only available in Dutch - In vakantieperiodes is het extra ongemakkelijk om over het acute lijden van anderen te horen. Nog erger is het, wanneer achter dat dagelijks nieuws erg onsmakelijke verbanden schuil gaan. Zoals bij de catastrofe in Somalië, die gewoon het gevolg lijkt van enorme droogte. Maar dat is maar een deel van het verhaal – en jammer genoeg het deel dat het makkelijkst opgelost had kunnen worden.

“Justice, Liberty, Prosperity”

By Aletta Jansen, Organisational Development Officer at HealthNet TPO - After the many years of civil wars in former Southern Sudan, the day has finally come for all South Sudanese; their independence. The Republic of South Sudan has been formed on the 9th of July, and was celebrated by all. Jubilation was palpable, even 5 days after the Big Day; a day where no major incidents occurred and the focus was on celebrating this achievement.

Challenges in Kunduz

By Stefan van Laar, contextadvisor with HealthNet TPO - A recent visit to Kunduz has made some things painfully clear: the trust of the Afghan population in the international forces has been reduced to zero, the security situation has further deteriorated and even the Afghan authorities in Kunduz do not believe in building their own security apparatus - like the West is aiming for - anymore.

Meanwhile in Cambodia...

By the CBHI project team of Achmea Zorg and HealthNet TPO –
Recently, staff of Achmea Zorg and HealthNet TPO visited the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) project in Cambodia. The project supports local partners in developing and implementing a health insurance system, to prevent unnecessary high health expenditures.

Social fundraising - the future in fundraising?

By Debra Schumacher, Marketing & Fundraising officer at HealthNet TPO -
Twenty years ago girl scouts would sell cookies door to door to raise money for a good cause. Nowadays ‘social fundraising’ seems to be the next best thing in fundraising when you take a look around the Internet. Doesn’t ring a bell when you hear the term social fundraising? Don’t worry, it’s becoming more and more popular every day so don’t stress out…yet!

Thinking of the 3D approach…

By Stefan van Laar, context advisor of HealthNet TPO -
Thinking of ‘3D’, some people might get the movie Avatar on their retinas, but this is really about the relations between the representatives of Defense, Diplomacy & Development. We belong to the latter D. There has been ongoing discussion about this issue, but what is our role, as an aid organization in the debate?