Matthew Durstenfeld
Yale University

Kaakpema Yelpaala, Benjamin Manu, Samuel Manteaw
Network for the Improvement of World Health
January 2008

Abstract

Network for the Improvement of World Health (Network), a U.S. based global health Non-Governmental Organization, conducted an evaluation of the Ghana Health Service's boat clinic program from June to August 2007 in partnership with the Ghana Health Service. The boat clinic program is a government project to expand access to healthcare services for communities isolated by water barriers, especially the over 500,000 residents of the Volta Lake Basin. The evaluation was conducted pursuant to a partnership between Network and the Ghana Health Service, in which Network provides technical and strategic support to the Ghana Health Service to scale up the boat clinic program. The evaluation included interviews with Ghana Health Service personnel at the national offices in Accra and site visits to three districts in which the program operates. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed, but due to limited access to quantitative data relevant to the selected districts, the research is primarily qualitative in nature. The boat clinic program provides essential health services to protect and improve health for a segment of the population that is isolated from access to healthcare. Our evaluation highlights that for the Ghana Health Service to scale up boat clinic services in a sustainable manner, it will require the following: a more robust coordination mechanism for the program; improved data collection, monitoring and evaluation; better communication between the districts and the national offices; continued increase in the number of boats, especially safer fiberglass boats; and, most importantly, sufficient financial resources for the program, including the ability to effectively finance recurrent program costs, particularly petroleum.

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