Over 98 percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries and half of these take place in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2008, Malawi had one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world with 1,100 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The neonatal mortality rate was equally poor with 29 newborns dying per 1,000 births. Malawi is one of the first African countries to have developed a ‘Road Map’ for maternal and neonatal health. According to UNFPA it is one of only two African countries that has successfully mobilised more than 50 percent of the funds required to implement its ‘Road Map’. However, despite the willingness of government to address maternal and neonatal health issues, pregnancy is still considered to be an extremely dangerous time in a woman’s life - to the extent that it is seen as bad luck to tell people about a pregnancy. Pregnant women are considered to have ‘one foot in the grave’, a clear marker of the continued danger surrounding childbirth.
WCF’s interventions in Malawi support both the objectives of Malawi’s ‘Road Map’ and the international benchmarks of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four and five by strengthening the capacity of communities and individuals to address issues relating to maternal and neonatal health. WCF currently supports the implementation of two community based programmes covering four districts.
MaiKhanda
MaiKhanda (meaning MotherBaby), a maternal and newborn health programme funded by The Health Foundation, is being implemented in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
MaiKhanda supports both the community and the health system to play an active part in achieving better health and saving lives in three districts (Lilongwe, Salima and Kasungu).
Women and Children First supported the project team to establish 729 women’s groups in 729 villages – the largest intervention of its kind in Africa. The groups identified the maternal and newborn healthcare problems they face in their communities and have worked to overcome these problems through low-cost solutions they devised and put into action themselves. The women’s group strategies include growing iron-rich vegetables, purchasing bicycle ambulances and obtaining bed-nets to prevent malaria. Following implementation, the groups were assisted to evaluate their strategies and to decide what happened next. The majority of groups decided to continue meeting with one of their members being trained to facilitate, leaving the original facilitators free to establish new groups.
Improving maternal and child health in Ntcheu
Women and Children First has worked in partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health in the district of Ntcheu since 2005. In early 2010 we successfully concluded a programme with 86 women’s groups, which laid the groundwork for a new three-year programme, funded by Comic Relief, which began in July 2010.
The new project continues the collaboration with the Ministry of Health to set up 144 women’s groups in Ntcheu District, covering a population of 72,000. The project builds on previous learning to improve maternal and child health practices in the community whilst also improving the quality of health services provided to pregnant women and their children. In addition, we are implementing a low cost data collection system to support health service planning and establishing an informal referral service to ensure the provision of skilled care.
