MCHIP/Mozambique Associate Award 2nd Year of the Project Quarter 3 Report: April 1 – June 30, 2013

The project's starting date is April 12, 2011, and it has a national geographic focus. The project's main objective is to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality in Mozambique through the scale-up of high-impact interventions and increased use of maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, and HIV services. The project has eight objectives, which include creating an enabling environment at the national level to provide high-impact interventions for integrated maternal and child health, reproductive health, and family planning services. The project also aims to support the expansion of activities for the prevention of cervical and breast cancer, assist in the development and implementation of family planning and reproductive health services, promote and test the introduction of neonatal circumcision services, and strengthen partnerships between the Ministry of Health and US Government partners. During the second year of the project, which corresponds to FY2013, the project made significant progress in achieving its objectives. In the third quarter of FY2013, the project provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to develop a national strategy for the prevention and management of post-partum hemorrhage. The draft strategy was presented to the SR/MNCH Swap Working Group, and a costing exercise was finalized. The project also implemented a consensus community mobilization strategy in support of maternal and child health, reproductive health, and family planning services. This involved distributing guidelines for the establishment and functioning of health committees and co-management committees to provinces and districts, and providing technical and financial support to hold provincial community mobilization coordination meetings. In addition, the project strengthened the health information system for maternal and child health, reproductive health, and family planning services. The MCHIP Monitoring and Evaluation Team provided onsite technical assistance to health facilities in the provinces of Zambézia and Nampula to strengthen their capacity to use new maternal and child health registers and to improve the completeness and quality of data submitted through the national health management information system. The project also continued to work with partners to revise and update national data collection tools and registers. It is anticipated that the final revisions will be completed in August 2013, and the field test will be conducted in September. Following the finalization of these registers, the project will support the printing and dissemination of the final versions. Furthermore, the project supported the Ministry of Health to conduct interviews and select personnel to hire for the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. Beginning in the fourth quarter of FY2013, the identified candidates will be contracted to work in the positions of the M&E Team Leader and the M&E Advisor for Maternal and Child Health. The project will provide technical support and guidance to these new staff, as requested by the Ministry of Health, in order to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation capacity of the Ministry.