Project profile — Improving Access to Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health in Mwanza, Tanzania - IMPACT

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased utilization of maternal and newborn health services by women and their families in targeted districts in Tanzania; and (2) improved availability of quality maternal and newborn health services in underserved districts in Tanzania.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2022) include: (1) trained regional health management team members (23 women; 22 men), district social welfare officers, health care workers, and police gender desk officers on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) identification, referral, and response to support referrals of SGBV survivors; (2) provided 305 quarterly supportive supervision sessions and 86 mentorship visits at the 80 targeted health facilities in partnership with the regional health management team, reaching 275 health workers (165 women and 110 men); (3) improved 23 health facilities’ gender-responsive and environmentally-friendly infrastructure, and 80 health facilities received essential medical equipment and supplies for improved reproductive, maternal and newborn health service delivery; (4) provided 717 community health workers (388 women; 329 men) with training and mentorship as part of the project’s comprehensive health promotion strategy for improved reproductive, maternal and newborn health outcomes; (5) trained 717 community health workers (390 women; 327 men) on early antenatal care attendance, nutrition, and breastfeeding. The health workers trained then visited 132,324 households and conducted 6,467 health promotion meetings and community conversations. The meetings held benefitted a total of 254,861 community members (141,946 women; 112,915 men); (6) trained 42 health workers (16 women; 26 men) in anesthesia to address the region’s difficulties delivering comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care at health facilities; (7) trained 700 community health workers (379 women; 321 men) and 71 community health worker supervisors (54 women; 17 men) to review community-level data collection and use; (8) trained rapid response teams on COVID-19 case management and logistics operations. Teams included 80 health workers (35 women; 45 men), ambulance drivers and burial teams; and (9) trained 647 community health workers (357 women; 290 men) on COVID-19 signs and symptoms, prevention strategies, creating awareness within the community, and gender equality issues related to the pandemic.