Message-ID: <s50901bc.066@msh.org> Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 09:51:34 -0500 From: Donna Monahan <mailto:dmonahan@MSH.ORG> Subject: Electronic Forum on Supervision To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
This message has been cross posted; apologies to those who receive duplicate messages.NEW ELECTRONIC FORUM: MANAGING FOR IMPROVED SUPERVISION
You are invited to subscribe to SUPER-L, a moderated electronic forum on supervision. The goal of this forum is to encourage a focused exchange of opinion and experience on key issues and questions related to supervision of health and family planning programs with a view to better understand elements of successful supervision, the complex organizational factors that can impact supervision, why supervision so often fails, and how to do it better. We hope the forum will assist in the identification of relevant approaches, tools, and experiences that can be used to improve the supervision and overall performance of health programs.
The forum is sponsored by the Management and Supervision Working Group of the USAID Office of Population's Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative. Moderation will be shared among three of the Working Group's participating organizations--AVSC International, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and University Research Corporation (URC).
WHY JOIN A DISCUSSION ON SUPERVISION?
As decision makers grapple with issues of decentralization, quality of services, and allocation of scarce resources, they are increasingly aware of the potential of good supervision in relation to these issues. However, the mere existence of something called supervision does not guarantee increased productivity or improved quality of services. Many health and family planning programs and organizations have used checklists, information systems, manuals, training, and technical assistance with varying degrees of success to address components of supervisory systems and practices. However, improving supervision may be only a partial answer to performance problems. In many cases, poor supervision is symptomatic of other organizational weaknesses. This forum is designed to highlight the factors that enhance or impede good supervision and discuss possible solutions, and to identify lessons learned from frank and open discussions of participants' experiences with programmatic successes and failures.
HOW WILL THIS FORUM BE CONDUCTED?
During the forum, moderators from the three organizations will raise questions covering the following issues, among others: the structure of supervision systems; the supervisory process; components of a supervisory system; and contextual factors that influence supervision.
The forum will begin on April 2 and will continue until mid-May. At that time, the discussion will be summarized and the subscribers polled to determine the group's desire to continue the discussion. At the end of the discussion period, the moderators will synthesize a consensus paper. Following approval of the paper by the larger MAQ Steering Committee, it will be disseminated for use as a guidance document by USAID cooperating agencies, USAID Missions, and other partners in planning and implementing aspects of the supervision and management components of their field projects. We look forward to a lively discussion [and welcome your participation]!
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