Maternal and Child Survival Program Annual Report Project Year 1 January 2017 – December 2017

The program in Zambia began in January 2017 and is expected to end by December 2018. MCSP's technical assistance effort in Zambia is in support of the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH&N) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, led by the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Department for International Development (DfiD), and USAID through Government-to-Government (G2G) support. The CoC Program aims to improve maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition by increasing the availability and readiness of quality health and nutrition services, increasing demand and uptake of physically, culturally, and financially accessible services, and strengthening health systems at national and sub-national levels. The program targets six provinces in Zambia, with grants funded by DfiD, SIDA, and USAID. MCSP is assigned to provide technical assistance in Eastern, Luapula, Muchinga, and Southern Provinces, focusing on district levels and below. MCSP's technical assistance is focused on three main objectives: providing demand-driven technical assistance for sustainable scale-up of RMNCAH&N interventions, fostering institutional collaboration to build local capacity in RMNCAH&N, and developing eLearning training courses to improve provider knowledge. To achieve these objectives, MCSP has established solid working relationships with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Systems for Better Health (SBH), provided technical assistance to districts and provinces in drafting and revising the CoC grants, and oriented districts to the new Health Information Aggregation (HIA2) tool. A core strategy promoted by MCSP is on-site mentorship, which involves identifying and training leaders in districts without an on-site clinical mentorship system. MCSP has also identified Zambia's General Nursing Council to target with technical assistance by twinning it with the Nursing Council of Kenya (NCK). Additionally, MCSP is developing eLearning courses at the request of the MOH, with existing training materials and guidelines being reviewed in advance of instructional design efforts. The program has made significant progress in its first year, with MCSP establishing solid working relationships with the MOH and SBH, providing technical assistance to districts and provinces, and orienting districts to the HIA2 tool. MCSP has also recruited and deployed staff to each of the target provinces and is now providing technical assistance. The program's progress is expected to continue in the coming year, with a focus on implementing the CoC Program in the provinces and achieving the program's objectives.