Project profile — Support to Health Zones in the Kinshasa Province of DRC

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased utilization of the available primary health care services by women, girls, men and boys in the targeted health zones; and (2) improved management of local public health services, including measures to improve gender equality.

Results achieved as of December 2016 include: (1) the coverage rate for the fourth prenatal consultation increased from 52.81% in 2015 to 59.19% in 2016 in the district of Funa, and from 48.58% to 53.73% in Nsele district; (2) the rate of curative consultations increased from 29% in 2015 to 38% in 2016 in Funa, and from 34.51% to 37% in Nsele; (3) the percentage of consultations referred by health centres to general referral hospitals increased from 1.24% in 2015 to 1.56% in 2016, and from 11.56% to 15.41% in Nsele, above the set target of 7%. Furthermore, the occupancy rate of beds in general referral hospitals was 75% in Funa (up from 48.29% at the beginning of the project) and 56% in Nsele (up from 36.4% at the beginning of the project); (4) gender mainstreaming in the annual operational action plans of supported health zones increased from 63% to 100%, with an average of 94%. Since the beginning of the project, some 132 health care providers (83 women and 49 men) were trained in equality between men and women. These results contributed to improving the capacity of health facilities to accommodate the needs of patients, especially women and children, to improving the management capacities of core teams in health zones, and to providing better health care services to the population of Funa and Nsele districts.