Promotion and Development of Regional Consultants

One of the major principles of the SFPS Project is that technical capacity in all aspects of reproductive health (RH) should be developed within African institutions and individuals. To support technical capacity building of African professionals, SFPS uses a two-pronged approach: (1) increasing the supply of qualified professionals through human resource development activities (training, co-training and work/consulting experiences); and (2) increasing demand for qualified regional professionals through the promotion of African consultants. Over the five years of the project, this approach should lead to an increase in the proportion of technical assistance being provided by regional consultants.

Human Resource Development Activities:

All of the training activities of the SFPS Project (training in: clinical services, IEC, counseling, OR, training of trainers, etc.) are working towards building national resources. In addition, the SFPS/Training component has been working at developing regional resource people who are capable of collaborating and supporting national expertise. Activities to develop regional consultants include:

• Training of trainers in clinical training skills (Abidjan, May 1996)
• Training in Contraceptive Technology update (Abidjan, April 1997)
• Intensive Course on Infection Prevention (Lomé, May 1998)
• Co-training opportunities for consultants who have been trained as trainers to provide them with experience along side a more senior trainer (on-going)
• Co-assignment opportunities for consultants who are beginning to develop certain areas of RH expertise (STDs, adolescents, etc.) with a more experienced consultant, in order to obtain more experience in providing technical assistance (on-going).

Future consultant development activities may include: training in curriculum design and evaluation of training, as well as training in new technologies/techniques, such as the U-removal technique for Norplant.

Promotion of African Consultants:

To promote the use of African consultants by other institutions besides SFPS, the Project collaborated with regional partner "Reseau Africain de la Recherche en Santé de la Reproduction" to create a database of regional consultants. This database is currently in a paper-based directory format and contains experience/qualifications summaries of over 70 consultants in the region working in RH. In 1998, SFPS and Reseau, with technical assistance from Morehouse School of Medicine, will explore the potential market and cost-sustainability for this directory to be computerized, updated and disseminated on an on-going basis. The goal of this evaluation is to draw up a plan to make the database a sustainable mechanism for promotion of African consultants beyond the life of SFPS.

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