Project profile — Meeting Critical Health Care and Nutritional Needs in Kenya

• Kenya (100.00%)

• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (50.00%)
Basic nutrition (12240) (50.00%)

• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Gender equality (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)

This project aims to contribute to a reduction in maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality by using an integrated approach to address the health service and nutritional needs of vulnerable populations in Taita Taveta County in Eastern Kenya. Reaching 3,000 pregnant women and their families, the project is focused on improving pregnant women’s critical nutrition status; improving the quality of health services for pregnant women and infants; and transferring knowledge on program design and implementation. Activities include: local consultations to determine critical nutrition and maternal, newborn and child health needs; community education and mobilization; training health care providers; and providing a critical nutrition package for women of reproductive age, pregnant and post-partum women and infants. The University of Manitoba is working in partnership with Pwani Christian Community Services and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) of Kenya to implement this project. It is part of Canada's Maternal, Newborn and Child Health commitment. The maximum CIDA contribution to this project includes $10,000 for monitoring purposes.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased uptake of a critical nutritional package by vulnerable women and children living in coastal region of Kenya; (2) increased utilization of critical maternal, neonatal and child health services by vulnerable women and children living in the coastal region of Kenya; and (3) improved programs and policies to expand uptake of a critical nutritional package and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services in vulnerable populations in Africa.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (July 2015) include: (1) training of 91 community health volunteers (CHVs) in maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and nutrition assessment, and delivered capacity building programs on critical MNCH and nutrition interventions; (2) 222 health providers across all sub-counties were trained on referral, community linkages and the critical package of MNCH and nutrition services; 3) 52 Department of Agriculture staff were trained on food security interventions; (4) the project reached 8,795 women of reproductive age, including 1,076 pregnant women, 509 postpartum women and 6,000 women with children under five as well as 7,105 children under five; (5) 73% of all pregnant women, 92% of children less than two years old and 72% of children under five were linked to the critical package of quality MNCH and nutrition services; (6) 1,600 households with women aged 15-49 participated in the food security interventions and 55% of households had kitchen gardens; (7) the project demonstrated improvement from baseline on many of the key MNCH and nutrition interventions that are known to ultimately improve MNCH and nutrition outcomes, including: improved early antenatal care (ANC) before 20 weeks gestation (40% to 71%); improved percentage of women who had 4 or more ANC visits (62% to 66%); increased facility delivery with skilled attendant (66% to 82%); improved postnatal care for both mother and newborn (16% to 69%); improved exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (25% to 73%); improved diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus immunization (DPT 3) coverage (80% to 94%); improved demand for family planning satisfied (34% to 58%) and improved antibiotic treatment for pneumonia (28% to 51%); and (8) improvement in utilization of the critical MNCH and nutrition interventions package from 0% to 57%.

• Proactive disclosure