ABSTRACT:
There are critical shortages of staff, equipment, medicines and funds in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), making the delivery of quality health services to their populations highly challenging. To ensure the effective and efficient utilization of limited resources in health programmes, adequate management capacity is required. The Community Eye Health Institute at the University of Cape Town has been offering a Leadership & Management course (for Strengthened Public Health Services) for since 2020. Through 5 iterations of the course, more than 200 clinicians, educators, researchers or programme / project managers, coordinators, and administrators responsible for delivery of public health care services or who are working in prevention of blindness programmes in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) completed the training. We determined how useful, relevant and necessary the training has been from the perspective of five cohorts of course participants through analysis of their formative and summative assessment, evaluations of training, and self-administered leadership and management practices submissions, using simple descriptive analysis. The training used a blended, action-oriented capacity-building model, which ensures relevance, practical application, and sustainability. The course participants obtained the core knowledge, skills and understanding of the principles, techniques, and application of leadership and management practices and approaches, leading to the creation of personal, ethical, strategic, situational and team leadership and management development plans for implementation in all areas of their lives. Leadership and management capacity is a critical but under-invested component of health systems strengthening. The Leadership & Management course (for Strengthened Public Health Services) is a proven, scalable, and contextually training programme grounded on demonstrated success in different contexts. With ongoing subscription and support, the course has strong potential to generate lasting improvements in leadership and management practice to ultimately benefit public health service delivery.