FRONTIERS
Capacity-building Courses

Two operations research (OR) courses have been added to the FRONTIERS capacity-building efforts. "Operations Research for Financial Sustainability" was previewed for an audience of Latin American nongovernmental organizations in Bolivia, and the first "Operations Research for Managers of Reproductive Health Programs" course was held at the Regional Center for Quality of Health Care (RCQHC) at Makerere University in Uganda.

The two new courses join frequently offered workshops in operations research techniques, economic evaluation of reproductive health programs, willingness-to-pay survey techniques, and the use of qualitative techniques in OR. The courses are designed to increase the body of consumers who appreciate and demand operations research, and to improve the ability of researchers to design research that is relevant to the solution of common problems in reproductive health programs.

A third course, "Scientific Writing for Reproductive Health Programs," was developed by FRONTIERS, in collaboration with WHO, for social scientists engaged in reproductive health program research. The course provides a formula for organizing and writing journal articles and reports.  

FRONTIERS works with collaborating centers in Africa, Asia and the Near East, and Latin America in designing and staging workshops and courses. Participants are supported by international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as well as by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Operations Research for Financial Sustainability

The financial sustainability course “Operations Research for Financial Sustainability” is the first step in a collaborative process to teach reproductive health organizations to use OR to increase their financial sustainability. The one-week course is followed by development of an OR proposal in the areas of cost control, cost recovery or income generation, and actual experience in conducting and evaluating a project’s impact on the agency’s income-to-cost ratio.

Participants in the course represented nongovernmental organizations from Honduras, Ecuador, and Bolivia. They were asked to bring service statistics data on program outputs such as the number of visits for reproductive health services and financial information. The first exercises concentrate on trends in service utilization and costs. The exercises identify high-volume services and important program costs, and form the basis for identifying appropriate sustainability interventions. Once identified, the interventions are developed into proposals for funding by FRONTIERS and other organizations.

Some objectives from the OR proposals developed at the course included:         

• Determine costs of family planning, gynecology, and obstetric visits;

• Determine amount of subsidy or profit for selected services;

• Identify clients’ ability and willingness to pay for reproductive health services;

• Learn how switching providers from salary to fee for service-based remuneration affects program costs and quality of care; and

• Test the impact of systematic offer of needed services on program revenues.

Participants felt that they had learned practical and simple techniques such as break-even point analysis, work sampling, and trend analysis that would be useful in their jobs. 

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See Also

• Strengthening Professional Resources
• FRONTIERS Strengthening Local Resources: Research Tools
• FRONTIERS Strengthening Local Resources: Technical Assistance and Institution Building
• FRONTIERS Tools and Manuals
   

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For more information contact:
Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS)
Population Council
4301 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 280
Washington, DC 20008 USA
Telephone: +1 202 237 9400
Facsimile: +1 202 237 8410
E-mail: frontiers@popcouncil.org

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This page updated 5 May 2008

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