The DISH II Team

The DISH II project was a shared responsibility. Partners ranged from governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to local indigenous groups. These partner organizations included humanitarian organizations, local government authorities, educational institutions, professional associates and faith-based organizations.

Prime partners in the project were the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), the University of North Carolina Program in International Training and Health (INTRAH), Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Reproductive Health (JHPIEGO).

JHU/CCP

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs is a leader in the field of strategic, research-based communication for behavior change and health promotion. CCP was established at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1988. In November 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded JHU/CCP a cooperative agreement to manage the DISH II Project in Uganda. JHU/CCP responsibilities in the DISH project were:

• Overall project management, including the administration of annual performance-based grants to each of the 12 districts;
• Monitoring and evaluation of project results, including biannual population based surveys, and designing and conducting special studies;
• Support to the Family Life Education Project, involving administering a large grant, providing technical assistance and project management support to this large NGO; and,
• Behavior change communication, involving designing, developing and disseminating multi-channel communication messages and organizing community based activities for parents, mothers, men, women, adolescents, groups vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, influentials, health workers, households and communities.

INTRAH

The University of North Carolina Program in International Training and Health (INTRAH) was established in 1979 in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. INTRAH assists countries in various stages of development to improve the delivery of reproductive health services through improved preparation and utilization of their human resources. In DISH II, INTRAH was responsible for clinical training and supervision with the overall goal of performance improvement at the district and facility level, including:

• District level training in Family Planning (FP), Maternal Health (MH), STD management and Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI);
• Development of district trainer/supervision teams for training and support supervision;
• Provision of technical support to districts to plan and monitor training;
• Provision of technical support to districts to develop training sites for all the technical areas; and,
• Support to districts to disseminate, ensure utilization and compliance with national guidelines and standards of all technical areas.

JHPIEGO

The Johns Hopkins International Education and Training in Reproductive Health (JHPIEGO) was established in 1973. JHPIEGO works to improve the health of women and families by increasing their access to service and improving the quality of those services at the lowest resource setting where women most at risk live. In DISH II, JHPIEGO worked closely with INTRAH to provide technical assistance in specific areas of expertise:

• Training in long term and permanent family planning methods, especially for medical officers; and,
• Training in emergency obstetric care for medical officers and selected midwives in referral centers.

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MSH

Management Sciences for Health (MSH), which was founded in 1971, works together with health care policy makers, managers, providers, and consumers to help close the gap between knowledge and action in the field of public health. In DISH II, MSH facilitated an ongoing change process to strengthen district management teams and support systems through:

• Management training, including quality assurance, logistics, supervision, and other managerial elements;
• Training in health planning and sustainability at the facility level;
• Improving health management information systems; and
• Improving drug and contraceptive logistics management.