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IC Net Limited
Health
Poverty aggravates health problems such as malnutrition, endemic disease, chronic infectious diseases, and HIV/AIDS. To help people combat such problems, we assist education of local population on nutrition and hygiene as an effective means of preventing disease as well as a form of primary health care. Peer education among those with high risk of HIV/AIDS is an example of such undertaking.
Prominent Projects
HIV/AIDS awareness education program for incoming population amid port construction in Cambodia
| Project Duration | ： April 2002 -- May 2005 |
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| Client | ： Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) | |
| Country | ： Cambodia |
An epidemic of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was a major concern among the incoming and migrating population such as construction workers and sex industry workers at the time of infrastructure construction in the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
IC Net provided consulting services to support the formulation and implementation of a HIV/AIDS prevention program by the Healthcare Bureau in Sihanoukville and the local port authority, and propose necessary measures against AIDS within JBIC-financed large-scale infrastructure programs.
The program components include advocacy, peer education / life skills, social marketing, establishment of STD clinics, talk on AIDS in safety meetings of construction workers, and establishment of recreational facilities. In addition, the IC Net consultant compared the change in knowledge and behavior of the port construction workers before and after the program and also compared them with other workers who did not undergo such program.
Based on the lessons from the components and surveys on knowledge and behavior, the program was narrowed down to the activities that the port authority would take the lead in sustaining. This project illustrated practical measures against HIV/AIDS that JBIC should consider in the preparation and implementation stages of large infrastructure programs.
Project for strengthening the primary healthcare in the Province of Samana in the Dominican Republic
| Project Duration | ： October 2004 -- September 2009 |
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|---|---|---|
| Client | ： Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) | |
| Country | ： Dominican Republic |
The government of the Dominican Republic started in 2001 a major healthcare system reform to ensure universal access to basic healthcare services, improvement of quality and efficiency, and financial resources for healthcare. Now the country is in a transition period in which the following are in progress: reinforcement of the supervisory function of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, enhancement of local healthcare offices, establishment of a social insurance organization, and separation of functions between delivery of healthcare services and administration. Among these reforms, primary healthcare services and the improvement of community healthcare are essential, requiring the strengthening of primary-level organizations and of supervisory roles of provincial healthcare offices. This project aims at fulfilling the aforementioned goals in Samana Province as a pilot model through developing human resources in healthcare and strengthening the linkage between healthcare services and communities. The challenge not only for medical experts but also the community is to shift their way of thinking from concentration on conventional medical services to promotion of preventive healthcare. The project provides support at two levels: (1) human resource development in regional healthcare units and education of the community people on the importance of primary healthcare through dispatch of JOCV personnel at the local level; and (2) implementation of the Plan for Strengthening the Primary Healthcare System of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare through experts assigned at the central level.
Distance Learning Course on Assessing and Strengthening Core Public Health Functions
| Project Duration | ： March -- June 2005 |
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| Client | ： The World Bank Institute |
To help developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Bank Institute has been formulating e-learning modules on Essential Public Health Functions in cooperation with the Pan American Health Organization. Through the e-learning modules, managers and mid-level policy makers of the Ministry of Health are expected to (i) acquire the technical skills needed to assess the core public health functions, (ii) actually perform an assessment of core public health functions, and (iii) identify gaps in the exiting performance of public health functions and plan ways to address them. Among the 12 Essential Public Health Function modules, IC Net developed and designed the contents of 3 modules: Quality Assurance, Health Regulation and Health Research and Innovation. In the pilot test, those three modules were highly evaluated. In the coming months, IC Net consultants will review and harmonize 9 other modules to improve the integrity and consistency of all the 12 modules. The World Bank Institute and the Pan American health Organization will launch this web-based course in the spring of 2005.