8th February, 2010
In a major boost to the Tanzanian government’s efforts to reduce maternal, new born and child deaths, AMREF has launched a four year project that will strengthen the capacity of communities, civil society organisations and local authorities to improve maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) for marginalised communities in Mtwara and Tandahimba districts by 2013.
AMREF has received a 4.2 million Euro grant from the European Union (EU) to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality in marginalised areas of Kenya, Southern Sudan and Tanzania, contributing to regional learning on MNCH while accelerating progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa. 25 % of the project budget will be co-funded by AMREF in the Netherlands who will also provide technical assistance on MNCH and monitoring and evaluation.
While global, regional and national policies to improve MNCH exist, and interventions to prevent maternal, neonatal and child deaths are available in Tanzania, Kenya, and Southern Sudan, MNCH indicators remain unacceptably poor. Progress has been hindered by poor policy implementation and weak health systems, which do not engage with or respond to community needs. This results in poor access and utilisation of preventive and curative health services.
Tanzania has witnessed a significant reduction in child mortality rates over the past two decades, but maternal health statistics have yet to improve. Poor women are 7 times more likely to give birth at home than the rich, with little or no post-natal care. Huge discrepancies in utilisation of services between pregnancy and delivery prevail with 99% of women attending Antenatal Clinics (ANC) at least once, but only 46% of births are attended by skilled personnel.
Running in Mtwara and Tandahimba districts of Tanzania, the project Putting African Mothers, Newborns and Children First: Strengthening community capacity to improve maternal, newborn and child health, will work in line with the government’s Primary Health Sector Development Plan (PHSDP) towards improving the delivery of health services by empowering communities to actively participate in health service access and provision by building the capacity of community health workers to increase community awareness around essential health interventions (Reproductive and Child Health among others) through health communication and education activities, advocacy, community mobilisation, mediation and lobbying.
The inception of the project is based on needs identified by project partners and potential beneficiaries, and is designed to dovetail with Tanzania’s national health and poverty reduction strategies. Overall indicators in historically marginalised southern districts of Tanzania, such as Mtwara and Tandahimba are exceptionally poor with social services provision characterised by a shortage in health and education facilities and inadequate staffing.
The project’s specific objective will be to strengthen the capacity of communities, civil society organisations and local authorities to provide, improve access to, and demand quality MNCH services for marginalised communities. The expected results in line with local plans, national and international policies include:
- Communities, especially women and girls, who are empowered with the knowledge to promote health-seeking behaviour, demand and access MNCH services;
- Increased capacity of local health systems to manage and deliver inclusive and comprehensive community-responsive MNCH services;
- Strengthened civil society organisation (CSO) capacity to participate in decision-making and influence MNCH policies and practices at local, national and international levels;
- Regional knowledge-base established on community based solutions to improving MNCH that will be used to inform policy making at national, regional and international levels.
The project focuses on maternal, newborn and child health as linked public health issues, but strategies to address MNCH have wider benefits on the health system – a stronger referral system benefits others too, over and above mothers and children, by allowing access to health services in a timely fashion. The project shall reach over 500,000 people in the target districts who will benefit from improved health and enhanced human resource capacity at the community and health facility level.
