By Cooh Odette Behn, camlinknews
The LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund, Mrs. Madeline Kayem, visited Cameroon Link on June 3, 2013. She told the Executive Director of Cameroon Link, that she had come to discuss how the Scaling Up Malaria for Impact Project went on in the Health District of Bonassama. It should be recalled that Cameroon Link was designated as the Civil Society Organisation coordinating the SUFI Project in Bonassama District. The first phase of the consultation ended in December 2012 and the LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund is evaluating the impact of the activities and outcomes in the different health areas covered by the civil society organisations in Cameroon.
Also in attendance were Mr. Francis Dingong of the Regional SUFI Coordination office in the Littoral. He sat in during the discussion on behalf of Plan International Cameroon. Helen Ayamba, the CAMLINK SUFI Project Administrative Assistant and Cooh Odette Behn, Media Liaison Officer were
Mrs. Kayem discussed the over all process of the 110 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that were recruited to undertake home visits to verify the use of long lasting impregnated mosquito nets in the district. CAMLINK SUFI Project coordinator explained that out of the 110, only 78 showed up to participate, only 72 CBOs worked for six months and 62 CBOs were validated for payment by the end of the month of December 2012.
On the role of the CBOs, he explained that the CBOs moved from house to house, verified whether LLIN were installed and where it had not been installed, the gather information on the reasons before educating them on the importance of the nets for preventing malaria, and the reason for the head count in each household to know whether the right number of mosquito nets were received.
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LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund wanted to know how often the CBOS brought feedback from the field to Cameroon Link SUFI office. The answer given was “monthly”. How was the information collected? The CBOs were given monthly reporting forms for data collection and planning of their activities in the health with the help of the health area technical supervisor covered by the PR1 part of the Global Fund Project. She was shown one of the reporting forms and explained the type of information that was collected for evaluation purposes.
The information from all the health areas were assembled into one monthly report that was shared with the Regional SUFI coordinating office and Plan Cameroon office in Yaoundé. She received information on the problems some of the CBOs encountered during their work as they moved from home to home. Some of the problems included lack of trust in the exercise, health taboos, stigmatization and so on. Some people refused the CBO SUFI investigators access to their houses because of no trust. Some areas were not accessible because of their marshy nature.
On how often the Cameroon Link CSO went on the field, the response was monthly and that three supervision missions were programmed by Plan to make sure the project was executed smoothly. The feedback was verified and confirmed by regular national and regional coordination missions planned by the national project director, Dr. Kwake. Cameroon Link staff went on the field once every month to verify the feedback received from the CBOs.
On the criteria of validating the reports from the CBOs, Mr. Achanyi-Fontem said, Plan set the criteria and marks were given over 14. Any CBO that got 7 or more marks out of 14 points was validated. These criteria were set based on the activities the CBOs had to carried out within the month, which included holding advocacy meetings, educative talks, home visits, planning for the next month and so on.
Before leaving Cameroon Link office in Bonaberi-Douala, Mrs. Kayem collected the list of validated CBOs in Bonassama and their contact numbers. This was to facilitate accessing them while on the field to cross-check the information collected at Cameroon Link office. In effect, her plan was to visit a few CBOs in each health area and some of the homes that had been visited by the CBOs.
From information received from the CBOs visited in Mambanda health area and Nkomba, the World Bank consultant was moved by some of the difficulties encountered by the CBOs during the LLIN usage assessment. From Bonassama, Mrs.Kayem had to undertake a similar exercise in Cite de Palmier. Bonassama and Cite de Palmier Health Districts were chosen for the evaluation exercise in the Littoral region of Cameroon.
The LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund, Mrs. Madeline Kayem, visited Cameroon Link on June 3, 2013. She told the Executive Director of Cameroon Link, that she had come to discuss how the Scaling Up Malaria for Impact Project went on in the Health District of Bonassama. It should be recalled that Cameroon Link was designated as the Civil Society Organisation coordinating the SUFI Project in Bonassama District. The first phase of the consultation ended in December 2012 and the LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund is evaluating the impact of the activities and outcomes in the different health areas covered by the civil society organisations in Cameroon.
Also in attendance were Mr. Francis Dingong of the Regional SUFI Coordination office in the Littoral. He sat in during the discussion on behalf of Plan International Cameroon. Helen Ayamba, the CAMLINK SUFI Project Administrative Assistant and Cooh Odette Behn, Media Liaison Officer were
Mrs. Kayem discussed the over all process of the 110 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that were recruited to undertake home visits to verify the use of long lasting impregnated mosquito nets in the district. CAMLINK SUFI Project coordinator explained that out of the 110, only 78 showed up to participate, only 72 CBOs worked for six months and 62 CBOs were validated for payment by the end of the month of December 2012.
On the role of the CBOs, he explained that the CBOs moved from house to house, verified whether LLIN were installed and where it had not been installed, the gather information on the reasons before educating them on the importance of the nets for preventing malaria, and the reason for the head count in each household to know whether the right number of mosquito nets were received.
The LFA-Local Fund Agent for the Global Fund wanted to know how often the CBOS brought feedback from the field to Cameroon Link SUFI office. The answer given was “monthly”. How was the information collected? The CBOs were given monthly reporting forms for data collection and planning of their activities in the health with the help of the health area technical supervisor covered by the PR1 part of the Global Fund Project. She was shown one of the reporting forms and explained the type of information that was collected for evaluation purposes.
The information from all the health areas were assembled into one monthly report that was shared with the Regional SUFI coordinating office and Plan Cameroon office in Yaoundé. She received information on the problems some of the CBOs encountered during their work as they moved from home to home. Some of the problems included lack of trust in the exercise, health taboos, stigmatization and so on. Some people refused the CBO SUFI investigators access to their houses because of no trust. Some areas were not accessible because of their marshy nature.
On how often the Cameroon Link CSO went on the field, the response was monthly and that three supervision missions were programmed by Plan to make sure the project was executed smoothly. The feedback was verified and confirmed by regular national and regional coordination missions planned by the national project director, Dr. Kwake. Cameroon Link staff went on the field once every month to verify the feedback received from the CBOs.
On the criteria of validating the reports from the CBOs, Mr. Achanyi-Fontem said, Plan set the criteria and marks were given over 14. Any CBO that got 7 or more marks out of 14 points was validated. These criteria were set based on the activities the CBOs had to carried out within the month, which included holding advocacy meetings, educative talks, home visits, planning for the next month and so on.
Before leaving Cameroon Link office in Bonaberi-Douala, Mrs. Kayem collected the list of validated CBOs in Bonassama and their contact numbers. This was to facilitate accessing them while on the field to cross-check the information collected at Cameroon Link office. In effect, her plan was to visit a few CBOs in each health area and some of the homes that had been visited by the CBOs.
From information received from the CBOs visited in Mambanda health area and Nkomba, the World Bank consultant was moved by some of the difficulties encountered by the CBOs during the LLIN usage assessment. From Bonassama, Mrs.Kayem had to undertake a similar exercise in Cite de Palmier. Bonassama and Cite de Palmier Health Districts were chosen for the evaluation exercise in the Littoral region of Cameroon.
Thanks to Camlink for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThere a small mistake, not that important for understanding but "Any CBO that got 8 or more..." should be Any CBO that got 7 or more
Dear Dr. Simo,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading the article and suggesting the update for scoring CBOs. We are effecting the change to read above 7 out of 14 as recommended. Your guidance is very important. Once again, thanks very much.
This is a very valuable information for all oh us. I hope you have been acting as our spokesman. Since they will visit only Cité des Palmiers and Bonassama, you have to advocate, to plead on our behalf.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is really the last stage before the ok for payments
Global Fund should record it that the CBOs and CSOs pre-financed this project. All work done and reports submitted with no payments. THIS IS TRUE GOVERNANCE.
ReplyDeleteMEG AGBOR