Strategic Health Planning

Dr. Grace N. Murindwa

February 2012

Outline of Presentation
Introduction to Strategic Planning
WHAT is Strategic Planning
WHY Strategic Planning
HOW to conduct Strategic Planning

Introduction
The origins of strategic planning were in
the military where a strategy was the
process or the skills in planning and
conducting a military campaign
Later, the corporate world, adopted it to
enhance and expand business
enterprises
Health sector introduced strategic
planning very recently

What is Strategic Planning

A Strategy is a long term plan for future
success or development
Strategic planning is therefore a
disciplined effort to produce
fundamental decisions and actions to
guide an organisation
A management tool constituting a set of
decisions about What to do, Why to do
it and How to do it.

What is Strategic Planning

In health sector, strategic planning enables
us to:
Have a clear sense of direction for all
partners, setting common objectives
Intentionally set goals (planning)
Focus our energies on points of common
agreements
Make fundamental decisions and tough
choices (it is impossible to do everything)
Work towards targeted achievements
Do a better job in the final analysis

Why Strategic Planning

Strategic planning supports strategic
thinking and strategic management
Strategic Thinking:
- Are we doing the right thing??
- Do we understand the environment
well?
- Are we creative enough to handle
the changing environment?
- Is our relevance at stake??

Why Strategic Planning

TO DO A BETTER JOB !!
- Work towards the same goal
- Focus our energies
- Assess and adjust direction

How to conduct Strategic

Planning

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

The Pre-requisites of strategic planning

Strategic plan period

BUILDING THE SUPRASTRUCTURE

(steps in strategic planning)

Pre-requisites for strategic

planning
Must be an inclusive process:
Include all those with a stake
Build relationships and Team spirit
Facilitate information exchange
Build uniformity of purpose

Clarify roles

Pre-requisites (cont.)
MISSION:
A shared sense of Purpose and Direction
If you dont know where to go, it doesnt matter
which way you go

What is the purpose of our existence?

What is our collective intention?

VISION:
- What will success look like?
- Sharing the success image!!
- The driving force behind success!!

Strategic Plan Period

Determine the strategic plan period
5 Year Plan
10 Year Plan

Make sure to harmonise the plan

period with national and district
planning frames

Steps in Strategic Planning

Conduct a situational analysis/assessment
Identification of critical issues
Developing strategies, goals and objectives
Costing and financing of the plan
Implementation and Monitoring of the plan

Conducting a Situation
Analysis

Getting to know ourselves and our

environment
Process involves Compilation of
organization profile

Conduct a thorough SWOT Analysis

of the organisation;
Strengths (internal)
Weakness (internal)
Opportunities
Threats

Identification of Critical
Issues

Derived from the SWOT Analysis

Exploit the existing strengths
Focus on weaknesses
Examine the external forces critically
Political, economic, social, technological,
demographic and legal

Critical Issues
Why are they critical /Justify the choices
What would be the consequences of not
responding to them?

Development of Strategies
Answer the question of HOW to address
the critical issues
Specify expected general and specific
results Goals and Objectives)
Requires time, flexibility and extensive
consultation plenty of dialogue
Choices of strategies is influenced by
possibility of harnessing the existing
strength and taking advantage of
available opportunities to address the
issues
Innovation and Creativeness contribute to
the outcome

Costing and Financing the

Plan

Costing the priority strategies

Capital Expenditure
Recurrent Expenditure
Financing of the Plan - determine the
financial resources available from all
sources for implementing the plan
Reconcile the estimated costs with the
available resources from all sources to
determine whether there are adequate
resources or funding gaps
Propose strategies for bridging the gaps or
using the surplus

Implementation and
Monitoring
Implementation
arrangements for the plan
Role of different stakeholders
Operationalization of the plan

Monitoring framework for the plan

Determine and agree on key indicators for
assessing progress and their targets for the plan
Determine sources of data
Supervision of plan implementation
Reporting arrangements and timelines
Review process to assess progress of
implementation (JOINT with all stakeholders)
Evaluation of plan (external) midterm and end

Strategic Planning Summary

Establish a clear purpose and sense of
direction
Examine self and the environment
Apply strategic thinking
Determine Critical Issues needing
redress
Establish appropriate strategies
Cost and determine the financing plan
Propose implementation arrangements
Translate the strategies into actions

Thank
You