Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Developing Countries

IHI Developing Countries Program Overview

Our experience to date suggests strongly that IHI can make a unique contribution, through our methods and with local partners, to saving millions of lives in developing nations, largely within their current resource constraints.

The women in this photograph are celebrating recognition by the Malawi Government for improvements in the Salima District Hospital, Malawi.

Health Care Topics

HIV/AIDS

Building capacity within health care organizations and larger health systems to combat and treat the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the focus of IHI's work in South Africa. Our work in South Africa focuses on providing better access to HIV testing and treatment for all populations in order to check the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Learn more about IHI's HIV/AIDS work in South Africa.

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT)

Preventing the mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS is an essential intervention that teams focus on improving in order to slow the spread of HIV. PMTCT is the focus on the IHI-supported 20,000+ Project in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. PMTCT hinges on early testing of mothers and treatment of infants and providing high-quality services to mothers and their babies both during and after pregnancy.

Learn more about Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in Resource-Poor Countries.

Maternal and Neonatal Health

Providing mothers with regular check-ups during pregnancy, access to high-quality clinics and professional health care providers during the birthing process, and continued care after birth is essential to promoting healthy women and a healthy community. Health promotion during pregnancy is essential to ensure a safe birth and a healthy baby.

Learn more in UNICEF's report The State of the World’s Children 2009.

Child Health

Creating access to high-quality health services and treatment for common threats to child health (neonatal disease, malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition) is essential to creating a population of healthy children who will grow into healthy adults. Programs like Project Fives Alive! focus on improving the health of children under five years of age in order to ensure healthy generations in the future.

Learn more about child health in Millennium Development Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality.

Lessons Learned in Developing Countries

As much as they learn from IHI, improvement teams in the developing world offer valuable lessons to wealthier nations about the importance of resourcefulness, innovation, keeping targets and measures simple, using teams to their fullest capacity and maintaining optimism. These principles reach across borders, both physical and economic, to guide the life saving work of improvement teams. Countries like South Africa, Malawi, and Ghana have much to teach the developed world about making great strides in improving quality despite a lack of resources.

Read the article by IHI CEO Dr. Don Berwick, "Lessons from developing nations on improving health care".