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TARSAN - CSO
Towards sustAinable quality healthcaRe delivery at grasSroots level through Active participation of civil society organisatioNs
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Key Facts & Figures
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► About 75% of the population of Bangladesh lives in rural areas but the human resources for health available is less than 20%.
► In Bangladesh there are only 0.58 qualified health workers per 1,000 population (WHO standard 2.5 per 1,000 population).
► Neonatal mortality is still high with 42 per 1,000 in 1999-2000, 41 in 2004 and 37 in 2007. Only 22% of children receive appropriate care within 24 hours after birth. The challenge is that 82% of births occur at home.
► It was also noted that only 1.9% of pregnant women belonging to poor quintile received Ante Natal Care (ANC) which depicts a picture of weak referral system.
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TARSAN-CSO project is working towards sustainable quality healthcare delivery at grassroots level engaging Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to support national health workforce policies, strategies, capacity building and skills transfer. The project aims to produce 500 trained Community Paramedics (CP), develop capacity of training institutes that offer Community Paramedic courses as per international standard and facilitate financial incentive packages. The three project target areas include Nilphamari, Patuakhali and Sunamganj districts/divisions of Bangladesh. Swisscontact is implementing the project in collaboration with Research, Training and Management (RTM) International, a non-profit organisation. The project is funded by the European Union.
Strategies:
TARSAN-CSO is a real investment in Human Resource for Health (HRH) development which envisages enhancing training capacity and quality standards of selected public and private training institutes. The CP approach will support the development of a sustainable mechanism for CP training involving regular peer review and certification of HRH. The action will facilitate placement of CPs at village level by offering training opportunities to young women and men willing to serve their community as members of skilled health workforce. To ensure this, CSOs and communities will be actively involved in various activities, including awareness building campaigns, selection of trainees and mobilization of fund/loan for poor students. The action will give particular importance to various events, with the assistance of media and local communities, to develop a model which will enhance awareness, give voice to consumers of healthcare services in rural areas, while simultaneously ensuring accountability of both public and private healthcare service providers.
Major project activities include:
• Building capacity of CSOs and public & private training institutes.
• Facilitation of policy dialogue, awareness, motivational and consensus building activities.
• Facilitation of training activities conducted by selected training institutes.
• Promoting formulation of data management system to institutionalise evidence based decision making.
• Facilitation of networking initiatives for scholarships, loans and incentive packages.
• Documentation and dissemination of lessons learnt.
Contact details:
More information on the project can be obtained from Dr. Jafar Ahmad Hakim, Project Manager (jafar.ahmad@swisscontact.org.bd)
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Bangladesh 
