Advocacy and Training for State Health Directors and Township Medical Officers on Managed Cash Flow—Standard Operating Procedures 15.10.2013

In his opening speech, Director General, Dr Min Than Nyunt, MOH, highlighted the importance of simplifying and streamlining different funding, different work plans, and different procurement systems to build one unified plan and one management system. Once such basic structures of the management mechanism are in place, efficient management of funding from different sources will be possible, with full accountability and transparency.

Following a two-day review workshop of the existing Managed Cash Flow — Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), held in January 2013 under the guidance and leadership of the Ministry of Health (MOH), UNOPS conducted an Advocacy and Training for State Health Directors and Township Medical Officers on Managed Cash Flow — SOPs in a series of six batches of two-day trainings from 7-18 September in Naypyitaw.

The aim of the Advocacy and Training was to promote management capacities through understanding the principles of a management structure and hierarchy of implementation management, including budgeting, work planning, activity implementation, budget management and reporting through the Managed Cash Flow.

The opening speeches were delivered by Dr Min Than Nyunt, Director General, MOH and Dr Yin Thandar Lwin, Director, Public Health, MOH. Deputy Directors General, Directors, State/Regional Health Directors, District and Township Medical Officers from the MOH attended the opening sessions together with the responsible officers from the AIDS, TB and malaria National Programmes and partners from the UN agencies, the Global Fund, local and international non-governmental organizations.

In his opening speech, Director General, Dr Min Than Nyunt, MOH, stressed the importance of Health Systems Strengthening including Financial Management, Procurement and Supply Chain Management, capacity building of health staff and strengthening of Information Management Systems to deliver quality health services. He highlighted the importance of simplifying and streamlining different funding, different work plans, and different procurement systems to build one unified plan and one management system. Once such basic structures of the management mechanism are in place, efficient management of funding from different sources will be possible, with full accountability and transparency.

The training also provided a platform to assimilate the similarities in the implementation of the Global Fund grants under Managed Cash Flow SOPs and government budget/financial management rules. Each two-day training included presentations, interactive group discussions on work plan development, budgeting, general management hierarchy and implementation management. Participants also had hands-on practice on how to use claim forms, work plan change requests and procurement forms, etc., as per the SOPs and principles.

The Advocacy and Training was a great success with more than 500 participants actively participating from State/Region and District/Township, representing more than 300 townships across 17 States and Regions, together with partners from local and international non-governmental organizations and UN agencies over the 12 training days.

It was of great benefit to build on the past experience of implementation of Global Fund Round 9 grants and to secure on-going commitment of the responsible State/Regional Health Directors and District/Township Medical Officers to follow the principles of prudent programme planning and budgeting and implementation management as well as financial management in scaling up the response to AIDS, TB and malaria. This commitment will help deliver greater impact across a broader geographic area and for more people in Myanmar to benefit from prevention, treatment and care.