Quarterly Report April - June 2009: Institutionalizing Best Practices in Maternal and Child Health

The project's overall goal is to introduce and replicate international best practices to improve birth outcomes and maternal health in target federal districts. The project was executed on September 30, 2008, and is funded by USAID under contract GHS-I-00-07-00002-00. During the third quarter of implementation, the project continued its administrative start-up activities, despite technical start-up delays. The team focused on planning activities and developing tools that are not directly related to project deliverables pending approval. The project management team sought legal advice from several sources to finalize and sign a subcontract with the Institute for Family Health Information and Research (IFH-IR) on June 1, 2009. This subcontract allows the project to fund IFH-IR's activities in accordance with USAID regulations and obligations to the Russian Federation. The project team also experienced delayed implementation due to USAID's delayed approval of project deliverables. The Ministry of Health in Russia presented new challenges, and without deliverable approval from the USAID Contracting Officer, the project team has not progressed in programmatic work. The deliverables, including the Life of Project Implementation Plan, List of Proposed Regions within Federal District Levels, and the Proposed list of Partner Institutes at the Federal District Level, have been submitted to USAID but are awaiting approval. Administrative activities continued during the quarter, including the establishment of a new Power of Attorney for Chief of Party Natalia Vartapetova, the hiring of 9 additional local staff on a part-time basis, and the acquisition of furniture and equipment for the new office space. The project is well-positioned to implement activities rapidly, with a growing team and a new office space. The Institute for Family Health Information and Research (IFH-IR) has written three letters to the Ministry of Health and Social Development (MOHSD) explaining activities under the MCHI I and MCHI II projects, previous IFH collaboration with MOHSD, and planning activities for the IBP-MCH project. These letters were presented to USAID in advance and approved, and were sent to MOHSD. The MOHSD officials requested all materials for health providers developed within the USAID projects to evaluate them, and IFH sent the materials in June. The project team is planning to come to an agreement with the MOHSD on work plans and finalize the selected regions for the project in the next quarter. Additionally, the team plans to complete furnishing of the new office space, including computers, and complete hiring of IBP-MCH technical staff.