Institutionalising leadership and management development for sustainable change
When we start a partnership with a public sector team, we aim to help them improve as managers and leaders. This will help them achieve their goals. But our goal is bigger. We want to bring about systemic change at an institutional level. Recently, we have been partnering with senior levels of public health institutions to find ways that we can not only support individual teams to work together more effectively, but also to create long-term investments in developing these skills at an institutional level.
In Ghana and Zambia, we have been working closely with senior health officials to support them in conceptualising ways in which they might institute their own leadership and management development (L&M) programmes and catalyse investment in these crucial skills. These investments will contribute to more effective public sector institutions that are better able to achieve their own goals and serve their communities.
Ghana
In February 2024, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) launched a new learning institute designed to improve L&M skills through world-class education and mentoring. The Ghana Health Service Institute (GHSI) is housed within the GHS and supports all levels of the service. Its establishment shows an intrinsic understanding of the importance of effective teams and the impact that L&M development can have when institutionalised.
AMP Health has been a trusted partner of the GHS for six years. Our first Management Partner was embedded in the GHS’ Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) in 2018. This team found the mentoring and coaching they received so useful that they created opportunities to share their learning with others at the GHS. The PPMED did so by hosting learning sessions with senior leaders, conducting training with regional teams, and creating a community of practice focused on bringing together GHS staff and other health sector stakeholders. This community of practice continues to grow and remains active to this day, with monthly online learning workshops that attract a diverse set of key stakeholders from across the health sector.
Since then, GHS has requested two additional AMP partnerships, one to develop regional health leadership in Ghana’s six newest regions, and another to support the establishment of a Country Innovation Platform that will identify promising health innovations and roll them out at scale across the country. Given our experience working with multiple teams in the GHS to strengthen L&M skills, we have also acted as a thought partner to senior health officials on the approach taken by the GHSI.
The Deputy Director General of the GHS, Dr Anthony Ofosu, led the establishment of the GHSI. Dr Ofosu had benefited from coaching and mentoring throughout his career and saw AMP Health’s way of learning by doing as a new way to develop GHS leadership. As a result, he sought AMP Health’s support in informing the institute’s design and approach. AMP continues to work with the GHS on the GHSI today while the GHS uses insights from its partnership with AMP Health to refine its approach to the GHSI. We are excited to see the launch of their first service-wide programme for mid-level managers in late 2024.
Zambia
AMP Health has been a key partner to the Global Financing Facility’s Country Leadership Programme (CLP). The CLP brings together senior leaders from the Ministry of Health (MoH), academic institutions, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector. The goal of the CLP is to support governments receiving GFF funds to improve their coordination and leadership to address health system challenges that impact reproductive, neonatal, maternal, and child health. Having successfully supported the CLP team in Nigeria from 2022 to 2023, AMP was asked to be part of the programme in Zambia.
During the kickoff leadership workshop for the Zambia CLP, participants identified the institutionalisation of L&M development for the health sector as a key priority. The participants were organised into three multi-sectoral working groups named after the Luena, Lukulu, and Lunzua rivers in Zambia. Each group was tasked with a different component of the institutionalisation plan.
The Lunzua group focused on the development of a standardised L&M curriculum, with the aim of including this into existing training for health workers and civil servants. Meanwhile, the Lukulu group focused on managing relationships with training institutions such as universities to secure their buy-in and ensure that the new curriculum could be incorporated into existing courses. Lastly, the Luena group were tasked with finding ways to reach existing health workers and develop their L&M skills on the job as part of the MoH’s staff engagement efforts.
Since then, two training institutions, the National School of Government and the Lusaka Apex Medical University, have committed to leading the curriculum development process. Once this curriculum has been finalised, it will be rolled out through universities, nursing colleges, and other public health training institutes throughout the country.
Throughout this process, AMP Health has played a key coaching, mentoring, and facilitation role, guiding the working groups to develop strategies, define roles and responsibilities, and effectively communicate with key stakeholders. What started as a programme for a small group of leaders to build their L&M skills, has now turned into a system-wide transformation project with broad support from senior officials within the MoH. The Assistant Director of Human Development in the MoH and the Director of the National School of Government both sit on the secretariat for this institutionalisation project and are actively taking steps towards making the new curriculum a reality.
In Ghana and Zambia, the government has embraced the transformational power of investing in L&M development within public sector teams. By institutionalising these efforts, both countries are not only enhancing their immediate capabilities but also laying the groundwork for long-term systemic change. Ghana’s GHSI demonstrates a deep-rooted dedication to building effective teams while Zambia's collaborative approach to integrating L&M training into existing structures shows how to make effective and efficient use of available resources. As these countries continue to invest in enhancing the L&M capacities of public sector teams, they serve as models for other countries on how investing in people is synonymous with investing in progress.