Resource Type: Publication
Authors:  Joel Schlesinger, Rachid Ben Amor
Published: November 2015

In 2015, USAID/Mali and the government of Mali requested the HFG project to conduct a Management Assessment of the office of the Secretary General (SEGAL) in the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene. The SEGAL’s office provides senior guidance, oversight, and control to the full range of the ministry’s health programs and activities. The SEGAL and his five Technical Advisers supported by three seconded technical specialists constitute the senior operating level of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene. This number is insufficient to accomplish all that is required of the SEGAL office. The Management Assessment provided in-depth analysis and recommended steps over the short, medium, and long term to address issues including the optimum number of SEGAL’s team and potential changes in organization and process that will permit the office to efficiently and effectively fulfill its responsibilities.

The work began with designing the Management Assessment to incorporate the SEGAL’s priorities e.g. the number and composition of his senior Technical Advisers so that the Office would better understand the changes needed to increase its managerial effectiveness in its oversight of Mali’s health programs.

The Management Assessment found that existing Technical Advisors spent up to 60% of their time on unplanned and unforeseen tasks, preventing them from focusing on strategic tasks that they are supposed to do. Such findings led the Ministry to use its own resources to recruit three new technical advisors to alleviate the workload of the SEGAL office, and to increase efficiency through a reallocation of tasks within the team. The Management Assessment provided evidence of the added-value of the Technical Advisors and the justification to depart from the government hiring freeze in place at the time.