Maternal Child Survival Program FY 2016 Q1 PROGRESS REPORT (01 OCTOBER – 30 DECEMBER 2015)

The program aims to improve health outcomes for HIV, malaria, nutrition, family planning, and maternal, newborn, and child health services. MCSP has three primary objectives: to develop a better-prepared midwifery and nursing workforce, to standardize the national Community-based Health Planning Service (CHPS) strategy, and to strengthen management and support systems in USAID/MCSP supported regions and districts. In the first quarter of 2016, MCSP made significant progress on its Year 2 workplan. Key activities included establishing skills labs for ten midwifery and two community health nursing schools, donating electronic tablets to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to enhance supportive supervision, and completing the packaging for four eLearning modules. Additionally, MCSP started work on the mLearning platform and module repackaging, conducted a workshop for IT tutors, and beta-tested the malaria mobile application game. MCSP also submitted Fixed Amount Award (FAA) paperwork for six midwifery schools, NMC, and Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (GCNM) for USAID approval. Furthermore, the program received a not human subjects research (NHSR) determination from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) institutional review board (IRB) and approval from GHS ethical review committee (ERC) for the task analysis protocol. MCSP also finalized the adaptation of reference manuals for preceptorship and simulation labs, revised the CHPS webpage design, and collected a final round of CHPS data for the costing exercise in Volta Region. Project administration changes include the resignation of Joyce Ablordeppey, Team Leader for the MCSP CHPS objective, who left Jhpiego on October 31, 2015. A CHPS Technical Advisor candidate has been identified to assume her post on March 3, 2016. Additionally, a final candidate for the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer position has been identified and will join the team on January 4, 2016. The Year 1 monitoring and evaluation plan is currently under review to reflect program activity changes in the Year 2 workplan. Results to date are presented in Appendix 1. In the subsequent quarter (January 1 – March 31, 2016), the team will focus on writing up the eLearning module process and standard operating platforms for pilot testing, identifying a streamlined design and development process for new eLearning content, and distributing the finalized eLearning content to schools.