Giving Compass' Take:

• The president of VillageReach provides six lessons her organization learned in delivering health care in the DRC during the wave of Ebola. 

• The author lists "drive systems change" as one of the core lessons in her work. How do partnerships with local stakeholders/government leaders help to achieve this goal? 

•  Read more about the worsening Ebola crisis in the Congo. 

Many of the rural communities of Equateur province rely heavily on the Congo River and its tributaries to connect its small villages to health centers. For local residents, the river can be the first barrier to access basic health services. If they can overcome geographical barriers, they may find another: a health center without vaccines and essential medicines. The DRC Ministry of Health is addressing these challenges head-on, prioritizing the accessibility and quality of basic health services for people living in remote villages across the country.

Last year, the DRC Ministry of Health turned to VillageReach, an NGO that aims to improve access to quality health care, which in this case meant supporting health centers in Equateur get the vaccines they needed, when they needed them.

Since proving the model in Mozambique, we’ve partnered with other governments to replicate our supply chain program. Our work isn’t wizardry—we build systems to get products to people. This requires discipline, usable data, trained professionals, and reliable transportation, which is no mean feat in an under-resourced health system.

Our experience in the DRC during this recent wave of Ebola outbreaks gave me pause and made me take stock of the most useful lessons we’ve gathered over the years. Six stand out as broadly applicable to the leaders of NGOs working toward systems change in any region or sector.

  1. Governments must be at the center.
  2. Embrace change. 
  3. Know your role.
  4. Start with the hardest communities to create a resilient model. 
  5. Drive toward systems change.
  6. Replicate what works. 

Read the full article about Ebola by Emily Bancroft at Stanford Social Innovation Review