AMREF, in collaboration with UNICEF, hosted a three-day workshop on Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM), a health care delivery strategy aimed at increasing access to health care for children, particularly in underserved, marginalised and hard-to-reach communities.
Integrated Community Case Management enables paid trained health workers or volunteers to assess, classify, treat, and refer sick children who have no access to fixed health facilities. It has the potential to increase the coverage of treatment for common but serious childhood infections such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea in populations with poor access to health services and thus accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 6.
The iCCM Programmatic Gap Analysis and Filling the Funding Gaps Workshop ran from June 18-21 at the AMREF International Training Centre in Nairobi. Participants reviewed iCCM status in various African countries and performed gap analyses on Community-Based Management of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, acute malnutrition and newborn care. They exchanged information on funding opportunities and mechanisms, and use of in-country resources. The meeting further identified technical support needed in the various countries to sustain universal coverage of key community-based health care interventions.
A total of 55 participants from nine African countries, with representatives from the UN, Ministries of Health, and civil society organisations attended the meeting.
AMREF is a transparent organisation distributing funds of up to $85 million per year.
