Training of local health managers: process of identification of strategic actions

In Brazil, in recent years, as a result of the increasing participation of county authorities in health care, a need for tools which would contribute to the better preparation of local administrators, complementary to the act ivities of a more academic nature, has been recognized. One of the possible alternatives is the exploitation of experiences, regarded as successful, i n local health care planning and administration, by using them as material for "case studies" in activities with selected groups of health care admini strators thus, stimulating the identification of those elements which contr ibuted to the favorable results attained, and their interactions, in the qu est for analogies which would facilitate the identification of new perspect ives for their own situations. In this article an experience of a "case stu dies" development, in response to a demand from UNICEF based on 8 counties in from the North and Northeast, which were successful in using a "focus ap proach" in their organization of data and their utilisation in a seminar wi th 21 local managers from both regions, is presented. During the seminar th e local health managers attained greater knowledge of the strategies implem ented and identified feasible intervention alternatives. The methodological proposition of teaching on the basis of case studies, using a conceptual s trategy of grouping experiences according to specific dimensions enabled lo cal health managers to learn from their practical experiences.