Evaluating the Effectiveness of Health Care Projects by NGOs in Sindh: Challenges and Prospects for Improvement.

Abstract

Healthcare is a fundamental necessity of a prosperity society that warrants untiring commitment towards delivering effective, affordable & accessible services. In Sindh province, the challenge of ensuring high-quality healthcare is intensified by limited governmental funding in addition to inadequate healthcare infrastructure that collectively hamper access to vital healthcare services for the general public. This calls for strategically-revisiting the current approach, where Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can play an instrumental role in bridging the healthcare performance gaps and minimizing the service delivery challenges at the government’s end. This qualitative study therefore explores the enhancement of healthcare project outcomes within the NGOs operating in Sindh province through the adoption of project management standards & methodologies of Project Management Institute (PMI), USA, coupled with an evaluation of other key challenges that hinder project governance & delivery. In this regard, the data were collected using semi-structured interviews done with NGO Representatives, Donors & Public Health Professionals including the Executives of Sindh government health department and subsequently analyzed using thematic analysis method. The results uncover some key actionable insights & strategies on how healthcare service delivery projects can be improved through effective collaborations & partnerships between the healthcare NGOs and health department of Sindh province, coupled with the adoption of internationally-established standards of PMI for effectively enhancing the performance & efficiency of the projects and consequently achieving the desired public health outcomes.