Leadership, Management and Advocacy MDI Training

A Management Development Program for Surgeons, Obstetricians, Trauma & Anaesthesia Care Providers

Course Overview

Leadership and management training, and indeed training in any discipline or field of endeavor is needed to equip personnel within an organization with necessary skills and knowledge for effective performance of tasks and assignments. Leadership and management training is particularly important as it enables those in positions of responsibility to provide effective direction and to manage both human and other resources to achieve set goals. In an organizational setting, leadership and management training enhances managerial and administrative skills and knowledge necessary to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in operations.

For over 11 years, Johnson & Johnson and Amref Health Africa have already implemented the Management Development Institute (MDI), a world-class management & leadership program for health leaders across Africa that has benefited 1,128 managers from 37 countries. This course has now been customized to meet the training needs of surgeons, obstetricians, trauma and anaesthesiologists care providers by Amref Health Africa, Johnson & Johnson and G4 Alliance. The course addresses the leadership needs of institutions in the surgical subsector in Kenya and in Africa by leveraging on the experience and learnings of the Management Development Institute (MDI) program for Health Care Organizations.

The Leadership, Management and Advocacy (LMA) training is a one week intense training and an additional six months of the Surgical Health Improvement Project (SHIP) work. The program has been designed to specifically include leaders, managers and practitioners (surgeons, obstetricians, trauma and anaesthesia care providers and hospital administrators) working in health care institutions (Public, Private and NGOs) in the region.

Priority Areas of Improvement

Since 2015, various consultations within the College of Surgeons of East, Central and South Africa (COSECSA) and the G4 Alliance framework facilitated by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) recognized that lack of leadership, management and advocacy skills contributes to limited access and availability of safe surgery for needy patients in Kenya and across Africa. Various discussion forums on the surgical health subsector have determined that often patients are held for long periods in hospitals as they await surgery, not so much because of lack of surgeons or theatre time, but due to lack of various essential supplies required for surgery (blood, oxygen, sterile tools for surgery etc.) and poor coordination of the surgical team, leading to unnecessary patient suffering, waste of scarce resources and high costs (and risks) for patients.

The Leadership, Management and Advocacy (LMA) training is intended to close the identified gaps for the effective and efficient management of the surgical health sub-sector in Kenya. By focusing on transformative surgical leadership for frontline providers, the Leadership, Management and Advocacy program aims to create positive nation‐wide changes in the surgical field in Kenya to maximize the efficiency of the existing human resource as the sector works towards training, retaining and distributing additional workforce for health in the country.

It is anticipated that leadership and management skills training will significantly improve efficiency in the provision of surgical services in the health sector. Further, stronger advocacy skills would help equip managers and practitioners in the surgical subsector to access increased funding and recognition of and the place surgery amongst governments (County & National), funders and other stakeholders, leading to better health outcomes. The ultimate goal of the program on Leadership, Management and Advocacy in the surgical subsector is to realize reduced cases of disability and death and a general improvement in the quality of life.