Baseline assessment: European Union partnerships for the delivery of primary health care programme in South Africa

In their quest to strengthen the delivery of PHC services in South Africa, the European Union, the Government of South Africa and UK's Department for International Development collaboratively developed a six year government/NPO partnership programme called Partnership for the delivery of Primary Health Care Programme (PDPHCP). The programme is implemented in 5 provinces, Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. The overall purpose was to ensure more accessible, affordable and quality PHC in the 5 provinces participating in PDPHCP. The study employed a pre-post design, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess partnership indicators. The baseline study (pre-test) constitutes the first step of the design phase of PDPHCP.