Integrated health and development initiative (IHDI) is a community based organization based in Arua city. IHDI has operations in the Districts of Arua city and Yumbe, especially the largest Refugee settlement in Africa, Bidi bidi. IHDI deals in prevention of infectious diseases like malaria, COVID-19 hepatitis and their co-morbidities. IHDI is also involved in cardio-metabolic research in collaboration with national and international research institutions.
IHDI was one of those CBOs identified, and assessed to receive the 11-day training in Lira March 2022 by Ministry of Health and TASO. The training included Governance, Leadership and Management, Strategic planning, Project Management, Human Resource Management, Procurement Management, Financial Management, Compliance and Grant Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Resource Mobilization and Proposal Writing in addition to mass action against malaria (MAAM).
The intense training was followed by a 5-days placement for internship at TASO Masindi which was to translate classroom training in Lira City into practical aspects of learning by doing in Masidi and then in Arua.
Since the beginning of capacity intervention, the following changes have been effected with the IHDI:
- To the CBO: Documentation of project activities has improved. There is M and E and Admin/finance files which were not there before.
- IHDI board has become more active, members who did not attend the training were trained by their colleagues who went for TASO training in Kampala. Review of board manuals, operational policies e.g. HR, finance, Formation of more board committees like resource mobilization committee were formed. One new board member was suggested –female of legal background.
- New collaborations and partners – Makerere University: Research project on Diabetes and Hypertension in Refugee setting has been approved worth 80,000 Euros for three years-2023-2025
- To the mentee e.g. Staff are able to write project proposals above and do better donor reporting for both program and finance reports.