Malaria control through municipalities in the Philippines: struggling with the mandate of decentralized health programme management.
This is a study on the management of the decentralized malaria control programme in Maharlika, Lipunan, a municipality in rural Philippines. The theoretical assumption is that the malaria control programme must be viewed as a system and that success of reform in malaria control depends upon the understanding of management issues by municipal officials. Through interviews, and documents and archival reviews, a framework for describing the dynamics of municipal management of the malaria control programme was developed. The overall finding was that the administrative management system was not functioning optimally: (a) planning and budgeting systems are not helpful; (b) malaria data do not inform planning; and (c) local financial resources are not utilized for malaria control. The underlying causes were: the absence of a clear statement from national offices regarding decentralization of health services, and the management processes, as stipulated in the Local Government Code, were not responsive to the needs of the municipality.
Espino
Fe
F
Parasitology Department, Laboratory Research Division, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Filinvest, Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines 1781. fespino@ritm.gov.ph
Beltran
Maylene
M
Carisma
Brian
B
D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008288:Malaria; D037141:Mandatory Programs; D010679:Philippines; D011057:Politics; D012424:Rural Population