Today CHAS’ mandate is translated in four strategic areas of focus:

1. Organizational/institutional capacity building

This program area includes the Institutional Capacity Building or strengthening covering the provision of technical or material assistance, designed to strengthen one or more elements of organizational effectiveness. Although the elements of organizational effectiveness include governance, management capacity, human resources, financial resources, service delivery, external relations and sustainability, current efforts supported by CHAS are limited to management capacity, technical capacity, service delivery capacity, coordination and resource mobilization capacity. In other words it includes systems development as well as human resource development type of activities where processes like institutional assessments, strategic planning, development of funding proposal, through workshops will be supported.

2. Resource Mobilization and Program Development and Expansion

The focus of this aspect in CHAS is the actual facilitation in mobilizing resources for program development or/and expansion in the respective CHAS member organization as this is critical for most of them. Capacity to mobilize resources is part of the institutional capacity building that is described above and this focus area is about actual resource mobilization.

CHAS will provide technical leadership in developing proposals and soliciting funding for programs to be implemented by its members. This effort will target resources from both international donors as well as local sources and programs developed under such funding will be in line with the overall mission and vision of CHAS as an institution.

 
3. Human Resource Development – CHAS Strategies

Human resource development for health care management and service delivery is a major need in Sudan hence the reason for special efforts by CHAS to focus on this aspect. CHAS support for human resource development is in three fold: a). Sponsorship fund to support training of medical professional; b). In-house training workshops and; c). Training capacity strengthening

3.1. Sponsorship Fund

The CHAS sponsorship Fund supports training of medical professionals, candidates identified/selected and are serving in CHAS member organizations. CHAS in all cases applies a selection criterion to confirm sponsorship of selected candidates. In addition this fund is to be used in supporting short-term training, seminars, conferences and study tours for managers and service providers outside Sudan as opportunities will arise.

It is anticipated that management of this fund will be through a small committee which CHAS has yet to establish in accordance to CHAS By Laws that are being drafted. The TOR for this committee will include taking technical leadership in processing applications to the fund, reviewing candidature, confirming overall benefit of this investment to the CHAS member where the individual is currently serving or will be deployed after training and observing principles of equal and equitable distribution of the resource among CHAS members and among regions of Southern Sudan and in line with GOSS policies.

Applications for sponsorship are expected to come from CHAS member organizations. The process will be as follows;

• CHAS member organization will identify the need and the candidate who should receive training. Candidates should be those already serving in the organization or planning to serve in the organization

• CHAS member organization will process or will facilitate the individual to secure admission in a training school

• CHAS member organization will submit application for sponsorship to CHAS, this application should have; the request, attachments of admission letter/documents and financial proposal as presented by the institution to which the candidate is admitted.

• CHAS will process this application and notify the parent organization of the availability of sponsorship and the modalities for availing the funds to the student
• CHAS member organization will provide periodic report on the progress of the student being sponsored at the end of each term/semester indicating funds required for any subsequent term/semester. Each progress report should have an attachment of the official progress report and the financial requirement from the institution the student is attending

3.2. In-House Training Workshops

Training workshops are organized and conducted by CHAS for short term training for service providers, mangers or church leaders. The focus of such training is according to identified technical, managerial and governance capacity gaps. CHAS will in all cases use training needs assessment findings to tailor the training to suit overall CHAS mandate.

It is the responsibility of CHAS member organizations to select participants to these training using whatever specific guidelines CHAS will have provided for a particular training.

3.3. Training Capacity Strengthening or/and development

CHAS’ support to training infrastructure development or strengthening focuses on improving the quality of health training programmes offered by CHAS Full member organizations already engaged in health training or by CHAS Affiliate member organizations with proven track record and potential to do more. Support could focus on improving physical infrastructure of training schools, improving training program, developing trainers and supporting training costs.

All CHAS human resource development through any of the strategies described above is targeting individuals and schools owned and run by partner organizations and these strategies can be categorized into three:

• Training to improve competencies for effective service delivery
• Training for improving management capacity of an organization
• Training for empowerment as a strategy towards sustainable developments.

Training for effective service delivery with the strategic objective of increasing access to and availability of health services and to improve or maintain quality of services. This targets service providers and supervisors.
Training to improve management of programs focuses on: strategic planning, proposal writing, quality assurance management, community management, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, orientation to health reform agenda and supplies logistics management. Such training targets managers and field supervisors.
Training to empowerment as a sustainability strategy focuses on; board development, sustainability planning, capacities for systems development, capacity for managing training, and capacity enhancement for effective external relations. Such training targets governance committees/bodies, trainers, senior managers and representatives from founder churches respectively.

CHAS has developed guidelines and tools that can be used by any member organization for the following:

1. Guidelines for Applications to the CHAS Sponsorship Fund

2. Capacity assessment of health training school

3. Capacity assessment of training Practicum Site

4. Facility Assessment

4. Information Sharing and Dissemination

Information dissemination and sharing is one of the objectives of the CHAS initiative as it increased the capacity of the network to be one uniform body partnering with government and donors using the same standard given the nature and the guiding principles that inform the mission of each respective member organization. The idea is yet to be properly institutionalized in form of a CHAS communication center where all members can access technical materials, training curricula, policy documents etc. Keeping the CHAS members informed on current global technical advancements in public health issues, GOSS policy matters, strategic direction and collaborations. The goal is increased dialogue and sharing.

This program area will therefore include activities like; dissemination workshops, production of newsletter, promotional materials like brochures and posters, establishment and maintenance of communication networks, exchange/study visits and reproduction of materials that are in limited circulation but needed by member organizations.