The Ministry of Health and Social Services In Namibia Educates Senior Staff on Social Contracting Processes

The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) in Namibia conducted a training session for its senior staff, focusing on social contracting, particularly on need identification and the processes of contracting civil society organizations through social contracting. The training targeted program managers, senior officers of the resource management unit, procurement and finance officers, along with senior staff from the HIV/TB/Malaria and child health teams.

The session provided an overview of the standard operating procedures, guidance notes and tools developed with support from the USAID-funded Local Health System Sustainability (LHSS) project, to facilitate the implementation of the social contracting policy. Additionally, the senior staff collaborated to identify and prioritize a list of services eligible for social contracting for the year 2024/25, ensuring clear definition and outlining of these services for bid document preparation.

With LHSS support, MoHSS is dedicated to piloting social contracting later this year, which will focus on services where civil society organizations already have a competitive advantage, particularly at the community level where MoHSS has limited access and where civil society organizations are already involved and are active.