Context
Medical expertise, state-of-the art technologies and successful approaches for optimising medical processes are in great demand among health professionals in many African countries. German organisations are well-known and respected partners in this context. The Hospital Partnerships – Partners Strengthen Health initiative promotes partnership projects in the health sector. These projects provide health professionals with continuing training and strengthen health care institutions in low-income and medium-income countries. The initiative is currently supporting two funding programmes. The Health Partnerships – Global funding programme implements projects around the world in various specialist fields. There are two funding rounds per year. The University and Hospital Partnerships in Africa programme, on the other hand, has a regional and thematic focus. Universities and hospitals in Germany with partners in sub-Saharan Africa are usually eligible to apply for funding every three years for a specific specialist area.
Hospital Partnerships – Partners Strengthen Health is a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS). Cooperation partners are the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The initiative’s secretariat is located at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The hospital partnerships are also part of the international ESTHER Alliance, whose quality standards are applied in the initiative’s funding programmes.
Approach
The University and Hospital Partnerships in Africa funding programme responds to the existing need for sharing knowledge between African countries and Germany. The partnership projects pool the medical expertise and experience of German and African health care institutions, with support being mainly geared towards universities, university medical centres, teaching hospitals and research institutes. The partnerships work together both in North-South and in South-South cooperation arrangements and set a thematic priority in each funding round.
They strengthen health care institutions by making elements of health care provision more effective and efficient. Funding of up to EUR 150.000 is available for knowledge sharing through initial and continuing training, temporary placements and staff exchanges between the partner countries, and for minor accompanying research projects.
In the current support phase (2017-2019), our 15 partnership projects are focusing on patient safety. While the Western health care system is increasingly adopting policies of pro-active error management, the conditions for ensuring patient safety in African countries with weak health systems are still nowhere near adequate. The current partnership projects on patient safety are based first and foremost on approaches that are scientifically sound and are geared to practical application. Country-specific solutions are being devised and piloted on a joint basis to address urgent problems related to the quality of care. The challenges involved include the risk of infection, resistance to antibiotics, lack of hygiene, rational medical therapy, laboratory safety and waste management.