Increasing access to high-quality MNCH services in Zimbabwe

Despite increases in access to and utilization of health services in Zimbabwe, rising mortality figures reflect a serious deterioration of the country’s health care system in recent years. JSI began working in Zimbabwe through the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Project (MCHIP) in 2010 against a backdrop of systemic collapse, political turmoil, and declining maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) indicators.

Working through these challenges, MCHIP Zimbabwe has achieved a range of accomplishments in supporting the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MOHCW) to improve MNCH outcomes, not limited to: supporting a National Integrated Health Facility Assessment/Quality of Care study, revitalization of MNCH technical working groups (TWGs), supporting quality improvement through the Standards-Based Management and Recognition (SBM-R®) approach, and extensive human capacity development across a range of clinical cadres.

Building on these achievements, the goal of the MCHIP Zimbabwe Associate Award (AA) is to increase access to high-quality MNCH services and strengthen health services in Zimbabwe by continuing to support the MOHCW and contributing to the scaling up and rolling out of evidence-based, high-impact interventions. These achievements will, in turn, reduce MNCH morbidity and mortality and malnutrition, and support progress towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. Project objectives will be to:

• strengthen the capacity of the MOHCW at national level to formulate evidence-based national health policies, strategies and programs to enhance scale-up of high-impact MNCH interventions;
• strengthen the capacity of the MOHCW at provincial and district levels to improve the quality of integrated MNCH services at health facilities and in the community to support national-level scale-up plans; and
• strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to implement MNCH activities and manage U.S. Government funding.

The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Project (MCHIP) is primed by Jhpiego. In Zimbabwe, the work is led operationally by John Snow, Inc. (JSI) in partnership with Jhpiego, Save the Children, and Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).