Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN)

MHEN works to achieve its goal of equity and quality in health care in Malawi through a variety of approaches.

MHEN works to build the capacity of network members in community-based research and monitoring of health care. They have developed a training protocol for data collection, held trainings, and published a training manual that was used in a July 2008 train-the-trainer session. Network members trained will conduct further trainings at the district level.

Through national, regional, and district roundtables, MHEN provides opportunities for discussion and debate on issues such as health services delivery, health services quality, and health care financing.

Through press conferences strategically scheduled when health-specific issues and crises occur, MHEN aims to raise awareness in the general public and to lobby governments to make change. For example, when nurses decided to "stay away" from work due to the low rates of Locum* pay at a hospital in Blantyre, MHEN (as a health watch organisation) was concerned that expectant mothers were being referred to a busy hospital that is often congested. A press conference was organised to raise awareness within the general public on the implications of the "stay away" on the government's efforts to reduce maternal mortality and to lobby the Malawi government to raise the rates of Locum as an interim measure whilst making efforts to increase the number of health workers.

MHEN has also recently (June 2008) hired a consultant to train journalists from both the print and electronic news media in Malawi in covering health issues in a balanced manner.

*Locum is a stop-gap measure to fill a service position when the position-holder is not available in the case of illness, attendance at a funeral, attendance at a training event, or abscondment of the position holder. In such instances, an officer is asked to fill that gap and paid a nominal allowance. This allowance is what is called Locum.

Media Development, Health, Health Access, Rights, Democracy and Governance.

MHEN was formed in 2000, and has a current membership of about 50 organisations, associations, coalitions, training institutions, and health professionals.

As a result of the district roundtables, districts health networks have been established which will provide a forum for inputting into the policy and decision making processes at the assembly level. According to MHEN, the meetings have led to improved rapport between MHEN and the assembly officials.

After the press conference related to Locum pay in the Blantyre hospital, the government revised the locum rates by 100%.