Experienced Health Professionals Form the Program Advisory Committee

The Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meets once a month to advise the organization’s Programs Team on strategy, design, evaluation, and assessment. It is led by Konbit Sante’s Program Director, Tezita Negussie, and is composed of volunteers, program staff members, Executive Director, Rupal Ramesh Shah, and members of the board. According to Tezita, “The members of this committee were selected for their experience managing or leading health programs and their history of working with the Haitian health system.”

The intent is to harness the expertise of established individuals in a collaborative setting to offer a deeper and more diverse set of solutions for the issues that the organization and its partners face. Due to the nature of Konbit Sante’s work in Haiti, topics discussed at these meetings are inevitably multilayered and complex. Healthcare systems contain many moving parts, especially when work is being done on a global scale, meaning that resolutions take time and often require multiple meetings. To elaborate, any given challenge will require input and solutions from the varied set of perspectives offered by the individuals that make up the PAC. Leaders of this committee believe that this approach is the right path forward to achieve sustainable and meaningful positive change in response to the topics discussed at each meeting.

With the committee still in its early stages of development, members are hopeful that future meetings will yield positive results on substantial matters relevant to the program’s work and allow for continued support for the Program Team’s efforts. Some topics that have been covered during the PAC meetings include securing and obtaining financial support for human resources, overcoming challenges with program planning in the face of emergent needs, and accompanying partners to achieve success.