By Sanaullah Ataullah
DOHA: Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has launched an innovative and world-first strategy for sustainable humanitarian services.
The ‘Save a Life Initiative’ (SALI) will provide urgent primary health care and medical services to vulnerable communities in countries, where citizens often cannot access basic healthcare due to unrest or lack of resources.
Initially, SALI is being piloted on many humanitarian health projects in Sudan, across Kassala, Khartoum, White Nile and South Darfur.
These cover important health issues such as malnutrition, primary healthcare, breast cancer and renal failures.
Details about the initiative were given by Dr David H Dombkins, Chairman, ‘Complex Program Group (Middle East) LLC’, which is RAF’s strategic partner for the initiative.
Dr Dombkins is a leading global expert on PPPs, complex project management and capability development. “SALI projects are implemented in collaboration with local government and communities using Public-NGO Partnerships (PNPs) — a new form of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the humanitarian sector,” he said.
“PPPs are a procurement strategy being used in over 130 countries worldwide to delivery major infrastructure and public services.”
The projects will start as PNPs, with the government gradually accepting increased responsibility for funding the projects.
Later, the projects will transfer into full PPPs when local government and NGO partners have developed necessary competencies. The purpose of this approach is to make the humanitarian projects more financially sustainable, with less long-term dependence on foreign aid and provide greater focus on encouraging local development.
“RAF plans to go beyond routine charity works and has approached local governments to make a real partnership,” said Dr Dombkins.
“RAF has selected the Sudan NGO ‘Patient Helping Fund’ (PHF) as its local partner for its pilot projects in the country and is providing training to PHF in improving how it manages and delivers projects”, he added.
The pilot projects will be delivered using a PNP-strategy, with RAF and partners funding the initial equipment, training, medical staff and technicians — such as mobile health clinics and teams, machines for kidney dialysis and tissue matching, fortified nutrition and feeding stations, and supporting facilities.
Each project will be linked with Khartoum University of Medical Science & Technology to support applied local research.
The projects are also integrated and aligned with local governmental policies, community leaders and other Raf projects.The Peninsula
