Malawi / Implementation Details

The Government of Malawi has committed to ensuring at least one health center within an eight-kilometer reach for every resident of Malawi. Furthermore, the government hopes to ensure universal coverage of an essential healthcare package for all its residents in the near future. While the government is the primary provider of healthcare in Malawi, the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) has been and continues to be engaged in providing over 35% of all health services delivered to the people of Malawi. CHAM encompasses nongovernmental, religiously based facilities and training institutions. In remote areas, CHAM facilities provide up to 75% of health services (CHAM, 2017). Currently, an estimated 3.7 million Malawians live in CHAM catchment areas

Service-Level Agreements, or "SLAs", are agreements between CHAM facilities and District Health Offices (DHOs) of the Malawi government, wherein CHAM agrees to provide critical care services, free of charge, to communities that would otherwise not be able to access critical health services. DHOs then reimburse CHAM facilities for the cost of these services, allowing them to continue their mission of delivering high-quality care to all.

SLAs reduce or eliminate user fees at CHAM facilities. This increases access to care for poor and rural communities, encourages the use and development of local community health facilities, and helps to alleviate over-crowding in government facilities. In this way, SLAs are a crucial step towards universal coverage and health equity in Malawi.

CHAM plans to digitalize its Service Level Agreement processes of invoice generation and review, up to payment level, using openIMIS. The digital system is expected to reduce errors, enhance data storage as well as offering quicker reviewing processes.

To improve the utilization of maternal and child health services, Malawi has implemented service level agreements (SLAs) with the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) since 2006. Under SLAs, CHAM facilities provide an essential health package for populations living in rural areas without charging user fees.

As the scheme is running since 2006, the processes are clear and the scheme is already running at scale. However, digitalization will help increase efficiency in the existing systems.

Presentations on the implementation

• 2024-01-31 Bhela - openIMIS - openIMIS Wiki (atlassian.net) Implementation updates Malawi

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