MCHIP Quarterly Report October – December 2009

The program is implemented by Jhpiego in partnership with Save the Children, Population Services International (PSI), John Snow Inc., Macro International, Inc., PATH, the Institute for International Programs (IIP/JHU), and Broad branch Associates. The primary implementing partners in Malawi are Jhpiego, Save the Children, and PSI. MCHIP aims to support the Ministry of Health (MoH) and USAID/Malawi strategy to accelerate the reduction of maternal, neonatal, and child mortality towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. MCHIP's prime programmatic objective is to increase utilization of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) services and practice of healthy maternal, neonatal, and child behaviors. To achieve this objective, MCHIP will focus on six key results: increasing access to and availability of quality facility-based essential maternal and newborn care and child and postpartum family planning services, increasing adoption of household behaviors that positively impact the health of mothers and newborns and children under 5 years of age, increasing availability of community-based MNH services through Health Surveillance Assistants, strengthening MNH policies, planning, and management in place at the national, zonal, and district level, increasing commitment of resources for MNH from the Government of Malawi and other donors, and strengthening planning and monitoring of MNH activities at the community level. During the October-December 2009 reporting period, MCHIP utilized the months for planning and revising the MCHIP proposal narrative and annual workplan based on USAID/Malawi's comments and expectations. Key program achievements included staffing key positions, including the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Finance and Administration Manager, Community Maternal and Newborn Health Specialist, MCHIP Program Officers, and two district Coordinators. MCHIP also conducted a national-level Stakeholder meeting to review key achievements under ACCESS and formally introduce the MCHIP program to the Ministry of Health and other key partners. MCHIP's workplan includes pre-service training, performance and quality improvement, kangaroo mother care, community MNH, malaria control, diarrheal control, and family planning. The program has not initiated several key activities during the reporting period, including the expansion of Performance and Quality Improvement in Reproductive Health, the expansion of BEmONC skills training, and the expansion of Kangaroo Mother Care in the four focus districts. However, planning for the initiation of Ambulatory KMC will begin in January, and updates for tutors in Postpartum Family Planning will begin in February 2010. MCHIP's partner leads include Jhpiego, Save the Children, and PSI. Jhpiego is leading the expansion of Performance and Quality Improvement in Reproductive Health, the expansion of BEmONC skills training, and the strengthening of Postpartum Family Planning. Save the Children is leading the expansion of Kangaroo Mother Care in the four focus districts. MCHIP plans to conduct formal documentation of the PQI initiative at the health center level in January 2010 and to review the RH standards and streamline and update them to reduce their complexity and enable more efficient use of the tool for monitoring performance of service providers and quality of care provided.