From embedded support to enduring systems change in Mali
Amp Health’s support is designed to encourage long-term adoption and ensure a culture of continuous learning thrives long after our partnerships have ended. In May 2025, we shared some of the many successes of Mali’s Subdirectorate of Health Establishments and Regulation (SDESR) during the partnership period from June 2022 to May 2024. These include an increased number of community health workers and the digitisation of community health tools. That said, we are most encouraged by the progress the SDESR team has continued to make since then.
As the team transitioned into the Sustainability Phase in mid-2024 – where Amp Health offers ‘light touch’ support – a new chapter began, shaped by growing ownership, stronger systems, and the integration of long-term practices across the Ministry of Health. In a clear sign of durability, the team is now using the habits, coordination structures, and confidence built during our partnership to shape a new national quality agenda, ensuring the practices strengthened are not only being maintained; they are being applied to a wider improvement effort.
A key milestone in this phase has been the co-creation of Mali’s first national Quality Improvement (QI) training package, fully aligned with the country’s 2024–2028 National Strategic Plan for Improving the Quality of Health Care and Services. Designed collaboratively with the SDESR, the package provides practical tools, methods, and standards that help health workers identify challenges, test solutions, and strengthen the quality of care across all health facilities. For Mali, this marks a significant change. After years of relying on external consultants, the Ministry now has a nationally led, context-specific QI approach that is owned, understood, and driven by local teams.
The SDESR team has also played a central role in mobilising the resources needed to scale the programme. To date, more than US$200,000 has been secured, including support from the World Health Organization, enabling the development and rollout of the training package. This investment has supported strong early progress:
300 trainers have been trained across seven regions
By the end of 2025, the QI programme reached all 11 regions of Mali
By 2028, the Ministry aims to have trained 80% of the national health workforce in QI methods
These numbers reflect more than programme expansion. They signal increasing commitment to sustainable improvement, shared standards, and sector-wide alignment.
A system strengthened from within
These figures matter because they point to a broader change. Stronger coordination, clearer reporting, wider leadership participation, and more confident decision-making gave the SDESR a stronger platform from which to lead. The team did not only manage a better community health partnership. It is using the habits, authority, and discipline built during that period to shape a wider improvement effort inside the ministry.
This new phase builds directly on the foundations established during Amp Health’s embedded support: stronger leadership habits, clearer accountability structures, and a more coordinated approach to planning and decision-making. What is emerging now is a system that is not only functioning more effectively and continuously improving, but one that is also led by people who have the tools, confidence, and mandate to sustain change.
Mali shows the benefits that embedded support can yield. The most valuable result is rarely a single workshop, tool, or campaign. It is a team that can convene, prioritise, track, and keep improving after full-time support Ends. In Mali, Amp Health support left behind a stronger ministry team, clearer routines, and a broader sense of what the team could achieve next, while the SDESR has continued to nurture a lasting culture of ownership and quality in health service delivery.