Program goal: Healthy people in resilient communities
Objective 1: Health
1.1. Integrated Health Program: The SRC Program in Laos will take a Life-Course approach encompassing pregnancy, birth, newborns, infancy, children, adolescents and adulthood, in order to recognize critical periods in life. Main thematic support in Primary Health Care with focus on
Reproductive Health and WASH
1.2. Contribution to Universal Health Coverage and social health protection
The SRC will continue to contribute to improvements in access to health services, in Lao PDR, through its support of the Government’s strategy of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and by strengthening the health system. Its support to UHC includes:
- contributing to health sector reform with focus on the health financing and governance & management pillars, and developing, innovative approaches to social health protection schemes with a focus on services for the poor and vulnerable
- improving quality assurance of the social health protection schemes through technical assistance with monitoring, analysis and verification
- empowering communities to define their health needs and to claim access to health services and
- linking those communities with the public health services.
The SRC continues to work at the national level with the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Bureau (NHIB) and with the Provincial and District Health Insurance Bureaux (PHIB & DHIB) in Luang Prabang and other provinces.
1.3. Blood Safety and Availability
Major support towards the National Blood Transfusion Center has so far been provided by the German Red Cross (GRC). However, as their engagement will come to an end, and since Blood Safety and Availability is a core thematic and support area of the SRC, it was decided to get engaged. The scope of the SRC support to NBTC will be decided on the basis of assessment findings mandated by the SRC within the course of 2021.
Objective 2: Disasters Risk Management
The DRM program will focus on supporting disaster response efforts of the National Society to assist disaster affected populations. Besides an overall support at LRC Headquarters and in the Luang Prabang province, the focus will be initially on Khammuan and Champassak provinces due to existing needs (poverty, risk and incidence of disasters). Main focus: WASH, Health in Emergencies, Emergency Response
Objective 3: National Society Development (Lao Red Cross)
National Society Development (NSD) will take a prominent role in the Strategic Period 2021 – 2024 which will be provided in close collaboration with the IFRC. Main thematics: Institutional Preparedness; Project Cycle Management; Volunteer Management
Institutional Preparedness
In an initial support, SRC will seek to strengthen existing capacity of LRC at the central level, through support to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) strategic planning, procedures and contingency planning, as well as National Disaster Risk Team (NDRT) training targeting representatives from all Branches. The second layer of support will focus on capacity development in Khammuan and Champassak provinces, and in Luang Prabang as peer branch, with the aim of strengthening LRC mechanisms from the central to the provincial level as well improving the capacity of the LRC Branches and provincial government through targeted training and support. Based on the experiences made in this first phase support (2021-2022), a more comprehensive project engaging the National Society and selected target branches will be developed.
Branch Development
One more LRC Branch shall be selected and supported in comprehensive OD & CB. The selection will follow a set of pre-defined criteria such as population needs, LRC Branch Strategy and Vision, etc. During the Strategic Planning process, it was further agreed that only those intervention areas that are of importance SRC and LRC shall be supported at both, Branch and National level. These are: IP/DRM, PCM support, financial management, volunteer management, First Aid, WASH and possibly road safety.
In its program, SRC, together with its partners, will ensure Gender & Diversity, Conflict Sensitivity, Nexus and Leaving No One Behind through careful needs analysis, sound decision making based on facts and figures and through an empowering, inclusive and accountable implementation approach recognizing human and environmental realities.