Strengthening public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems in the republic of the marshall islands - the republic of the marshall islands (RMI) is located in the north-central pacific…

Strengthening public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems in the republic of the marshall islands - the republic of the marshall islands (RMI) is located in the north-central pacific ocean, roughly between hawai'i and guam. IT is comprised of 29 atolls and 5 islands (totaling 1,156 islands and islets) spanning an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 750,000 square miles of ocean, but a landmass of only 70 square miles (equivalent to that of rhode island). Its current population is estimated at 79,906 as of the 2010 population census projections, with nearly two-thirds of the population residing in the two main urban centers of majuro island in majuro atoll and ebeye island in kwajalein atoll. Despite its long and strong relationship with the U.S., the RMI continues to experience critical development challenges impacting the ability of the RMI government to develop, implement and sustain quality and comprehensive public services to the marshallese people. The overall project aim will be to support efforts that will, over the course of the 5 years of the grant, strengthen the mohhs' systems, capacities, and service delivery to more effectively drive improvements in population health outcomes. The application will also support the implementation of key priority areas of the RMI mohhs' newly drafted 8-year ministry strategic plan (MSP) in alignment with the key priority areas of CDC-RFA-OE22-2203 addressing health workforce development (WD) under strategy A1; foundational capabilities (FC) under strategy A2; and data modernization (DM) under strategy A3. The primary focus of the project will be to enhance and expand existing core foundational planning and development processes, expand and refine existing systems and processes, and train existing staff to ensure sustainability and improve quality and comprehensiveness. Only one new initiative will be started under the project and that will be the establishment and implementation of the mohhs' new executive MBA training and internship program, a critical workforce pipeline initiative to address the critical shortage of qualified healthcare administrators and managers in the mohhs. Anticipated outcomes include: - new and updated mohhs management system, policies and procedures, and HR staff competencies - neighboring island health assistants (niha) trained in electronic data collection and surveillance/ patient registry/ vital statistics reporting, IPC and public health emergency preparedness and response - trained cadre of young professionals in advanced healthcare management that can potentially be hired to take on key administrative/management functions at the mohhs - a critical, priority competency identified by the mohhs - support the mohhs' development and implementation of the 8-year MSP performance monitoring and evaluation plan - MSP mid-term external evaluation report informs continuous MSP development, planning and improvement of execution - new and updated systems and processes for mohhs' key performance indicators (kpis), including improved staff competencies for KPI data collection, reporting and data visualization - expanded utilization of mohhs' existing financial management system functionalities and associated improvements in finance staff competencies that will drive improvements in mohhs' financial management, tracking and reporting capabilities - mohhs' health informatics and data modernization plan developed, resourced and implemented - mohhs' electronic vital statistics and patient registry biometric system established and fully functional at ministry of culture and internal affairs - accurate and real-time vital statistics certification and reporting - all targeted 49 neighboring island health centers' (nihc) very strong aperture terminal satellite systems are enabled - 49 nihas trained and nihcs fully implementing and reporting into RMI mohh's central electronic surveillance, patient registry, and vital statistics reporting system