Dentaid Equipment Programme Independent Evaluation 2007 

At the beginning of 2007, Dentaid invited Dental Public Health experts from Queen Mary's University, London, to independently examine the charity's equipment operation. Their findings are available below:-
 
Dentaid Equipment Programme Evaluation 2007

We are very grateful to Dr Nanjappa and Professor Croucher for this most interesting and helpful study.
 
The provision of donated western dental equipment will always be a subject that will divide opinion. Since Dentaid began in 1996, as resources have allowed the employment of specialist and trained staff, the charity has strived to improve its equipment operation to what it believes today is a highly professional service. We do acknowledge however that the provision of donated dental equipment in isolation, even to the standard to which Dentaid delivers, has potential sustainability issues and a limited effect upon overall oral health care provision in middle and low income countries.  
 

 An example of a non Dentaid equipment donation - 68 broken & inappropriate dental units "dumped" on a hospital in Uganda, September, 2006

Dentaid was set up to combat this type of situation and the results of this study show that Dentaid's equipment donation operation is having some beneficial impact upon empowering partner organisations to provide dental clinical services to their communities. There always remain areas for improvement, particularly in the areas of ongoing support and monitoring. Independent evaluation is a vital tool in this process. We will continue to act on its recommendations as we move foward with our work.
 
Encouragingly, a number of the recommendations are issues we had already identified and had been working hard to address in previous years.
 
Since 2006, a step forward for Dentaid has been the implementation of dental engineer training programmes, to help improve the longevity of the equipment and encourage self-reliance. In recent years, Dentaid has held two residential training programmes in Cameroon and Uganda for 30 hospital engineers from Dentaid supplied clinics in Uganda, Cameroon, Burundi and Rwanda, which were well received, and new and improved relationships and channels of communication have been established between Dentaid and recipient clinics and the engineers themselves. It is hoped that similar programmes will be held in other countries and regions in the years ahead.
 

Graduates of Dentaid Engineer Training Course in Cameroon, 2007
 

However, the most important step forward has been Dentaid's adoption of three additional strategic priorities (oral health promotion, capacity building and advocacy), alongside the original strategy of providing appropriate physical resources, as the central columns of Dentaid's work. This now ensures that Dentaid is able to provide a wide range of services and skills in order to promote a more "joined-up" approach and ensure that the most appropriate and effective services can now be offered and provided to partner projects around the world.