MFSII activities in Burundi, DR Congo and South Sudan (18-08-2011)

The Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation (DCR) is a collaborative association with regard to the planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of the joint MFSII programme (a Dutch co-financing system for 2011-2015). Together with Save the Children, ZOA-refugee care and CARE, HealthNet TPO has submitted a grant-request for a cross-thematic programme. After some major budget cuts, the DCR eventually receives a grant of € 63.4 million for 5 years. HealthNet TPO implements health related projects in Burundi, DR Congo and South Sudan.

The MFSII budget cuts resulted in a reduction of geographical areas where HealthNet TPO will implement activities: the Burundi MFSII project remained more or less the same; in South Sudan the proposed activities in Yei were taken out, which left the proposed activities for Jur River County in Western Bahr El Ghazal; and the proposed activities in DR Congo were most affected by the budget cuts and are confined to Lubero Health Zone.

The main objectives of the MFSII programme, as set by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are: i) contribute to poverty reduction, ii) strengthen civil society involvement and iii) contribute towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals. The main objective of the HealthNet TPO interventions is to contribute to community and health systems strengthening in fragile states, aimed at restoring social cohesion and trust and improving access to quality health care. The MFSII interventions are based on already existing evidence of the appropriateness of proposed activities in the contexts where these are implemented and should contribute to generating further knowledge and evidence for best practices.

The MFSII programme can be divided into two components:

a)   Health systems strengthening
Within the health systems strengthening component, HealthNet TPO focuses on some key interventions such as Performance Based Financing (PBF), exploring the health financing options at a community level, strengthen the involvement of Health Facility Committees, strengthen the Health Management Information System implementation and the integration of mental health in basic health care.  

b)   Community Systems Strengthening (CSS)
The overall goal of HealthNet TPO’s CSS interventions has been defined as: “Community members are able and motivated to undertake action and take responsibility towards an improvement of their well-being and health.” The purpose is to reinforce or establish community systems, to enable people to make use of local services, formal and informal networks and/or key figures.  

See for more detailed information on activities the MFSII programme the PDF file