The 13th Ordinary Meeting of the Sectoral Council on Health held on 18th November 2016 approved the Terms of Reference for developing EAC regional harmonized integrated Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) and HIV/AIDS service packages, standards and guidelines (EAC/Health/SCM13/Directive 77). Following approval of the EAC Integrated Health Programme (EIHP 2016-2020) under which this assignment is financed in April 2017 by the 35th Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers (EAC/CM35/Decision 98), the EAC Secretariat commenced the process of developing the integrated packages and standards through floating a call for application from suitable consultants. EAC Secretariat has obtained financial support for this programme from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Development of the harmonized integrated EAC RMNCAH and HIV/AIDS service packages, standards and guidelines will be informed by a regional assessment of integrated RMNCAH and HIV/AIDS services in the EAC Partner States. Failure to identify a suitable consultant to undertake the assignment led to change in approach from using a consultant to using relevant Partner States’ subject matter experts. In this regard, the EAC Secretariat requested Partner States to nominate the following four (4) experts as members of the National Study Steering Committee, and in effect, the Regional Study Steering Committee:
- the National Head of the RMNCAH Programme (Principal Investigator)
- the National Head of the HIV/AIDS Control Programme (Principal Investigator)
- a Senior technical expert from the RMNCAH Programme
- a Senior technical expert from the HIV/AIDS Control Programme
The protocol, data collection tools and other operational instruments for the assessment were developed by the Regional Study Steering Committee between March and September 2018 and were subsequently considered by the 17th Ordinary Meeting of the Sectoral Council on Health on 26th October 2018.
