TO INCREASE UTILIZATION AND AWARENESS OF EXISTING CERVICAL SCREENING SERVICE IN MULANJE, MALAWI.
The form of assessment for this module is summative, and includes the production of a 10-page business plan to address a health problem. The tasks for each student include:
1. Identification of a health problem in a chosen country
2. Develop a business plan proposing to set-up a new health service or improve an existing but ‘weak’ health service to address the problem you have identified
3. The assignment will be marked out of 100%, with the minimum pass mark being 50%
Assignment Task: production of a 10-page business plan proposing to address a health problem.
Business Plan Outline
1. Brief summary of the plan (1-2 paragraphs)
• A description of the problem and service: what will the service provide? What is the strategic rationale of this service?
• A description of the implementation.
• Summarise aims/objectives and measures of success: how are you going to measure success?

2. Project Operations and Management
• Current operations: what is currently being done about the problem? For instance, are there other services already doing something about the problem? If so, what are these services doing and what needs to be improved, for example to address gaps in current provision?
• Quality improvement plan: how will the quality of the service be monitored and improved?
• What resources do you need to be able to achieve results? For example, think about inputs such as personnel, finance and other requirements.

3. Target Market
• How do you define the target market or markets for this service? Refer to relevant data or research here if possible
• Where will the service be offered: which communities or geographical areas? ,
• Demographics: what are the characteristics of the intended customers/target groups?
• Do you need to do any needs assessment (maybe useful if service being proposed is new)? If yes what is needed – how will this supports the plan?

4. Marketing Strategy (in the context of the overall strategy and implementation plan)
• How will you target potential service users and promote the service?
• Industry Analysis: how does your proposed service compare with any others that seek to meet the same needs? Are there any ‘unique selling points’ you want to communicate to potential customers/service users?
• Are there particular requirements and barriers for market entry? If so, how will you address these?
5. Partners/Competitors
• Who are your proposed partners, if any? Please list and describe these.
• What role or roles will your proposed partners take?
• Who are the competitors in this area of service provision? Please list and describe these.
• What threats can you identify to your proposed service, in the form of competitors or other factors?
6. Risks
• Potential risks: what might threaten or undermine the proposed service?
• Regulations: are there any that support or present barriers to the proposed service?
• Long-term strategy and plan: what do you hope to achieve over the long term? Spell out how you will achieve this.
• Exit plan: once the service is established, how can it be sustained by others? Alternatively, if monitoring shows that the service is not achieving objectives, what is the backup or contingency plan?
7. Timeline: what are the tasks for start-up? Who will do what at each stage? Use a Gantt chart to describe these.

8. Brief appendix of supporting materials if needed (for example, could be a log frame of your plan, monitoring plan, summarised budget)
Assessment criteria for marking
Characteristics of a Strong Business Plan
1. Summarizes the idea clearly and compellingly in a simple, brief statement.
2. Shows compelling need for program using good data on specific population groups.

3. Effectively integrates community partners throughout the plan; develops strong win-win strategic alliances.
4. Carefully assesses conditions: collects and organizes data on the industry in general and the local “market” in particular; analyzes data to assess potential opportunities and threats; details important factors necessary for the plan to succeed.
5. Describes operations to show clearly the plan will be efficient and effective; clearly links operations to environmental analysis; timeline, availability of personnel and other resources, and exit plan are well thought out and sensible.
6. Outlines specific, elegant measures of success for the program in several different areas.
7. Considers resources needed; diverse revenue streams that are clearly sustainable in the long-term (may use grants as start-up funding).
8. Looks polished. Free of typos, formatting problems, grammar mistakes; excellent charts and graphs convey information clearly and efficiently; well organized; includes any supporting documents or data in well-organized appendix;