Project profile — Mama Kwanza (Mother First) Socio-Economic/Health Initiative

Expected results for this project include: increased use of locally relevant gender sensitive evidence to inform maternal, newborn and child programs/services; and increased use of locally relevant maternal, newborn and child programs/services and strategies which recognize gender equality.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (December 2016) include: (1) training was rated as highly effective by nearly 80% of all participants; (2) 80% of the project’s clinical staff leadership were women; (3) 677 individuals were trained on the knowledge, skills and abilities required to utilize MNCH data and evidence. Of these individuals who were patients and health care providers, 70% were women; and of those who were project representatives, over 40% were women; (4) 707 women and their newborn benefitted from MNCH programmes and services; (5) a network of six clinical sites were created through this project, one of which was dedicated to hard to reach populations; (6) 54 health kiosk events were attended by 437 participants who were screened for hypertension, diabetes and risk factors as well as provided with basic information on topics such as prevention, signs and symptoms of stroke; (7) the clinical sites received an average of 204 new patients per month with over 87% of them being women or children; (8) 717 women and 231 children attended health promotion and disease prevention activities with topics like breast health, cervical cancer and oral hygiene; and (9) over the course of this project, the anticipated number (2, 000) of health care recipients was exceeded with over 6, 900 individuals receiving services at the clinical sites (this number does not include non-clinical visits). Nearly 85% of clients were women and their children (up to age 14).