Project profile — Supporting Essential Maternal and Child Health Services in Benin and Togo

The expected outcome impacting mothers, pregnant women, newborns and children under five include: i) improving availability and utilization of essential health services, through clean drinking water, training, improving antenatal care, and advancing MNCH and WASH through the training of clinic workers and by using active community networks; and (ii) increasing absorption and consumption of nutritious foods, nutrition counselling, new healthy practices supported by Family Health champions, and sanitation and hygiene training.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2020) include: (1) an increase of 78% (the target was 80%) from the baseline of the number of men, women and children using improved water sources; (2) a 44% increase in visits to the clinic by women for prenatal care (the end target was 20%); (3) 99% of men (39% at baseline) and women (42% at baseline) are now using water, sanitation and hygiene resources in villages and health clinics, exceeding the end target of 90%; (4) over 99% of men and 98% of women reported they feel they are using safe drinking water all or most of the time, compared to the baseline of 35% for men and 40% for women; (5) there was a 18% reduction in the incidence of diarrhea in mothers and children under the age of 5, compared to the target of 15%; (6) the knowledge, skills and capacity of health workers was improved, as evidenced by a 88% pass rate in post-training evaluations, compared to 43% in pre-training evaluations; and (7) 250,329 villagers (exceeding the original target of 167,500 villagers) of which 80% are women and children, now have access to clean water in 281 communities (the target is 279) in Togo and Benin.