Mali

Venez à la rencontre de Marguerite Diarra. Son but est de former davantage de sage-femmes et d'améliorer l'accès aux soins maternels au Mali.

cbales — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 13:00:21 +0000

Venez à la rencontre de Marguerite Diarra. Son but est de former davantage de sage-femmes et d'améliorer l'accès aux soins maternels au Mali. cbales March 08, 2024

March 08, 2024

À l'occasion de la Journée internationale de la femme, nous célébrons des femmes comme Marguerite qui nous inspirent à #InvestInWomen.

Par une matinée ensoleillée à l'école Vicenta Maria de Ségou au Mali, Marguerite Diarra démontre la gestion active de la troisième phase de l’accouchement en utilisant un Mama-U, un simulateur obstétrique/gynécologique représentant l'utérus d'une femme.

Marguerite forme des sage-femmes qualifiées prêtes à s'occuper des femmes au Mali, en particulier dans les communautés rurales. Elle a grandi à Beleko, dans la région de Dioila, et est devenue sage-femme en 2016. Aujourd'hui, elle est enseignante permanente et se spécialise dans les soins obstétriques.

Le Mali n'a pas assez de sages-femmes.

Le Mali, comme d'autres pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest francophone, ne dispose pas d'un nombre suffisant de sage-femmes qualifiées ou d'autres agents de santé. Il n'y a que 6,1 sage-femmes, infirmières et médecins pour 10 000 personnes, ce qui est bien inférieur au nombre recommandé, et la pénurie est encore plus grave dans les zones rurales. Cette situation entrave l'accès équitable des femmes aux services de santé, notamment aux soins maternels et à la planification familiale, et contribue aux taux élevés de mortalité maternelle.

Au Mali, plus de 500 femmes sur 100 000 meurent lors de l’accouchement. De plus, la formation initiale traditionnelle n’outille pas assez les agents de santé pour faire face aux conditions de travail réelles.

Le projet Classroom to Care (C2C) d'IntraHealth, financé par la firme pharmaceutique Takeda, aide 12 écoles privées de santé comme Vicenta Maria à adopter une approche de l'éducation basée sur les compétences.

L'approche par compétence est basée sur les besoins de la population.

Alors que la formation initiale classique consiste à élaborer des programmes par matière ou par objectif, les programmes de l’approche par compétence (APC) sont élaborés en fonction des besoins de la population et des compétences requises. Dans la formation classique, l'enseignant transmet les connaissances, tandis que l’APC est orienté sur la facilitation de l'apprentissage de l'élève.

C2C a formé 250 enseignants comme Marguerite au Mali, au Niger et au Sénégal sur cette approche.

Photo par Amadou Iam Diallo pour IntraHealth International.

"Ces formations m'ont vraiment aidée à comprendre mon rôle d'enseignante, à prendre conscience de mes lacunes et à appliquer de nouvelles compétences", explique-t-elle. "Auparavant, les enseignants faisaient tout, mais avec l’APC, nous avons appris à placer l'étudiant au premier plan de sa propre formation. C'est à l'étudiant de prendre les devants, et à l'enseignant de le guider et de l'orienter. Cela a changé notre façon de préparer et de dispenser les cours", explique Marguerite. Cette nouvelle approche a rendu les cours plus interactifs et plus bénéfiques pour les étudiants.

"Nous mettons l'accent sur la pratique, qui est très importante dans leur apprentissage pour devenir des agents de santé compétents."

Marguerite supervise également les étudiants dans les centres de santé communautaires, les centres de santé de référence et l'hôpital de Nianankoro Fomba. "Je suis chargée de positionner les étudiants et de suivre le développement de leurs compétences. De temps en temps, nous nous rendons sur le terrain, car nous mettons l'accent sur la pratique, qui est très importante dans leur apprentissage pour devenir des agents de santé compétents".

Le projet a constaté que de nombreuses écoles de santé manquaient d'équipements de première nécessité. Il a donc déjà fourni des modèles anatomiques et d'autres matériels didactiques pour créer des laboratoires de compétences dans les écoles.

"Le laboratoire de compétences va beaucoup nous aider", déclare Marguerite. "Nous avons déjà beaucoup d'équipements par rapport à d'autres écoles, mais il y a encore des lacunes. Par exemple, nous n'avons pas l'équipement nécessaire pour faire l'insertion de DU, le retrait ou encore l'examen d’autopalpation des seins. Nous n'avons pas non plus certains mannequins, et nous en avons besoin pour préparer les étudiants aux stages sur le terrain, afin qu'ils sachent ce qu'il faut faire lorsqu'ils prodiguent des soins aux patients".

D'ici la fin du projet de cinq ans, C2C vise à ce que 580 enseignants du Mali, du Niger et du Sénégal soient formés sur l’APC, que 9 720 étudiants bénéficient d'une formation de qualité et qu'un laboratoire de compétences soit installé dans chaque école.

Parallèlement, il se concentre également sur la promotion de l'équité, de la diversité, et de l'inclusion (EDI) afin d'augmenter le nombre de diplômés en soins infirmiers et de sage-femmes, en particulier les femmes issues de communautés marginalisées. C2C a effectué des analyses situationnelles de l'EDI et utilise les résultats pour élaborer des plans spécifiques aux écoles. Ces plans permettront d’appliquer les meilleures pratiques de l’EDI afin de rendre les 12 écoles partenaires plus inclusives pour les étudiantes, d'améliorer leur bien-être ainsi que leurs résultats scolaires.

By Amadou Iam Diallo

Technical advisor for communications

By Carol Bales

Strategic communications manager

Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Health workforce development International Women's Day Gender Equality Midwives Nurses Mali

Is In The Media

Photo par Amadou Iam Diallo pour IntraHealth International.

Vital Thumbnail Image

/sites/default/files/article-thumbnail-images/ms06621.jpg

Meet Marguerite Diarra. She’s On a Mission to Train More Midwives and Increase Access to Maternal Care in Mali

cbales — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:47:15 +0000

Meet Marguerite Diarra. She’s On a Mission to Train More Midwives and Increase Access to Maternal Care in Mali cbales March 08, 2024

March 08, 2024

For International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating women like Marguerite who inspire us, and donors, to #InvestInWomen.

On a sunny morning at the Vicenta Maria School of Ségou in Mali, Marguerite Diarra demonstrates active management of the third stage of labor using a Mama-U, a training model representing a woman’s uterus after childbirth.

Marguerite is on a mission to produce more skilled midwives who are ready to care for women in Mali, particularly in rural communities. She grew up in Beleko, in the region of Dioila, and became a midwife in 2016. Now she’s a permanent teacher at the school, specializing in obstetrical care.

Mali doesn’t have nearly enough midwives.

Mali, like other countries in Francophone West Africa, doesn’t have nearly enough skilled midwives or other health workers. There are just 6.1 midwives, nurses, and doctors to serve 10,000 people, far below the recommended amount, and the shortage is even worse in rural areas. This hinders women’s equitable access to health services, including for maternal care and family planning, and contributes to high rates of maternal mortality.

More than 500 women die for every 100,000 live births in Mali. And, traditional preservice education has not prepared health workers for real-life work conditions.

IntraHealth’s Classroom to Care (C2C) project, funded by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, aids 12 private health schools like Vicenta Maria in adopting a Competency-Based Approach (CBA) to education.

The Competency-Based Approach to education is based on population needs.

Whereas classic preservice training involves developing programs by subject or objective, CBA programs are developed based on population needs and the needed competencies for job requirements. In classic training the teacher provides the knowledge, while CBA teaching is based on facilitating student learning.

C2C has trained 250 teachers like Marguerite across Mali, Niger, and Senegal on the CBA approach.

Photo by Amadou Iam Diallo for IntraHealth International.

“These trainings really helped me understand my role as a teacher, become aware of my shortcomings, and apply new skills,” she says. "Previously, teachers did everything, but with CBA, we learned to put the student at the forefront of their own education. It's up to students to take the lead, and the teacher to guide and direct them. This has changed our way of preparing and delivering lessons," Marguerite says. This new approach has made classes more interactive and beneficial for students.

"We emphasize practice, which is very important in their learning to become competent health workers."

Marguerite also supervises students in community health centers, reference health centers in each district, and Nianankoro Fomba Hospital. "I am responsible for positioning students and tracking their skills development. Occasionally we go on field visits, because we emphasize practice, which is very important in their learning to become competent health workers.”

The project found that many health schools were lacking the equipment they needed for students to practice and has already provided anatomical models and other teaching equipment for establishing skills labs at the schools.

“The skills lab will help us a lot,” says Marguerite. “We already have a lot of equipment compared to other schools, but there are still gaps. For example, we don’t have the equipment required to insert or remove an IUD, or for demonstrating to women how to conduct breast self-examinations. There are also mannequins that we don’t have, and we need them to prepare students for their field placement, so when they are providing direct care to patients, they know what to do.”

By the end of the five-year project, C2C aims to have 580 teachers across Mali, Niger, and Senegal trained on the CBA, 9,720 students benefiting from quality training, and a skills lab at each school.

Meanwhile the C2C is also focusing on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to increase the number of nursing and midwifery graduates, particularly women from marginalized communities. C2C conducted DEI situational analyses, and is using the results to develop school-specific plans that apply DEI best practices. to make all 12 partner schools more inclusive for women students and boost well-being and academic performance.

By Amadou Iam Diallo

Technical advisor for communications

By Carol Bales

Strategic communications manager

Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Health workforce development Private-Sector Approaches International Women's Day Gender Equality Midwives Nurses Mali Niger Senegal

Is In The Media

Photo by Amadou Iam Diallo for IntraHealth International.

Vital Thumbnail Image

/sites/default/files/vital-images/ms06631.jpg

In Francophone West Africa, 3,000 More Nursing and Midwifery Students Are Benefitting from Competency-Based Training Matching Local Needs

cbales — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 16:19:57 +0000

In Francophone West Africa, 3,000 More Nursing and Midwifery Students Are Benefitting from Competency-Based Training Matching Local Needs cbales November 20, 2023 November 20, 2023

IntraHealth is partnering with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to improve maternal and child health in Mali, Senegal, and Niger by sustainably increasing the number of skilled nurses and midwives ready to serve rural communities.

Through the Classroom to Care (C2C) project, funded by Takeda's Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program, IntraHealth International is improving access to high-quality maternal and child health care in Mali, Niger, and Senegal by strengthening the preservice training of nurses and midwives in 12 private health schools. Now at the end of the second year of the project, more than 3,000 nursing and midwifery students—75% of whom are women—are benefiting from updated curricula adapted to local clinical practice.

The project is responding to several pressing issues. There is a critical shortage of health workers (nurses, midwives, and doctors) available in the three countries, with only 6.1 health workers in Mali, 3.9 health workers in Niger, and 4.3 health workers in Senegal for every 10,000 people. The shortage is even more acute in rural areas. Currently, traditional preservice education curricula have not prepared health workers for real-life work conditions, and many health training institutions are inadequately equipped and unaccredited. Furthermore, women are disproportionally disadvantaged when it comes to enrollment and graduation due to a variety of factors, such as family responsibilities. Discrimination against women and gender inequalities directly impede development of the health workforce to provide equitable and accessible health services.

Meanwhile the maternal mortality rate remains very high in the three countries, with 315 deaths per 100,000 live births in Senegal, and more than 500 deaths per 100,000 live births in Mali and Niger. And in Mali and Niger, approximately 10% of children die before their fifth birthday.

Competency-Based Approach

Competency-focused preservice education is critical for the provision of high-quality maternal and child health services that meet local needs. Since 2006, the West African Health Organization (WAHO) has pushed to harmonize training curricula for nurses and midwives in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region that addresses current disease patterns as well as intra-regional migration. The curricula use a competency-based approach (CBA) that considers population and student needs to replace classic training. Many health schools in the region, however, have still not started the process of implementing the WAHO standardized curricula or been able to train a critical mass of teachers on CBA.

From 2017-2020, the USAID/Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity, led by IntraHealth, supported the use of competency-based curricula in 10 schools and strengthened policies and practices related to recruitment and retention of students, leading to improved performance of health workers.

The five-year C2C project builds on this work and supports four private schools in each country to strengthen preservice education of nurses and midwives through enhanced competency-based curricula; train teachers and others in the CBA, achieve the appropriate accreditations; and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to increase the number of nursing and midwifery graduates, particularly women from marginalized communities and vulnerable groups.

C2C partners with a diverse set of stakeholders, including WAHO, government bodies including the ministries of health and education in each country, government units such as the Human Resources Division and the Division for Mother and Child Health, private school associations, health professional associations, and Empower School of Health.

Preliminary results

C2C conducted an in-depth needs assessment to identify the baseline for each school, then developed capacity-building plans for all 12 schools to address gaps in national accreditation standards, purchased essential teaching equipment for competency labs, and digitized eLearning modules harmonized with the WAHO curricula.

At the end of Year 2, the project has:

Supported the development and validation of CBA teacher training documents at the national level, including a reference manual, trainer’s guide, and participant workbook.
Through updated CBA training programs, improved the skills and knowledge of 3,721 students, teachers, and school management staff:
- 398 teachers acquired skills and knowledge in adult teaching techniques.
- 250 teachers and clinical supervisors received training on competency-based curricula.
- 3,073 students (2,361 women) benefited from updated curriculum content with tools adapted to clinical practice.
Developed an Accreditation and Quality Assurance Roadmap for all three countries, established internal quality assurance and accreditation units in each school, and oriented 62 educational advisors on quality assurance—laying the groundwork for the accreditation process.
Digitized 33 maternal and child health teaching modules and developed an eLearning platform in collaboration with Empower School of Health. This platform is a comprehensive learning management system tailored to each country, and the modules cover topics such as pediatrics, anatomy, community health, and obstetrics. The eLearning platform incorporates DEI considerations in its design, audio and visual features, and mobile and offline options.
Established inter-ministerial technical working groups in the three countries and initiated a regional private sector community of peers and a community of practice on medical sciences training.

What’s next

C2C is currently conducting DEI situational analyses in all three countries, and in the next year will use them to develop school-specific DEI plans that apply DEI best practices, such as providing nurseries and lactation rooms, to make partner schools more inclusive for women students and boost well-being and academic performance.

C2C will launch the eLearning platform and over the next three years will expand the platform to also include management and leadership courses and solidify it as the standard in health care education across West Africa. C2C will ensure each partner school receives the necessary equipment and technical support to set up competency and computer laboratories. C2C will deepen engagement with stakeholders, from government bodies to local communities, ensuring that the project's impact is sustainable and far-reaching.

The project will also continue its Private Sector Community of Practice, strengthen public-private partnerships through the technical working groups, and oversee implementation of action plans in each school.

By the end of the project, C2C aims to have 580 teachers trained on the CBA, 9,720 students benefiting from quality training, and all 12 private health schools accredited.

Learn more about the Classroom to Care project in three short videos produced by IntraHealth’s Mali team for a virtual visit this month with Takeda.

Mali Niger Senegal Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Education & Performance eLearning Private-Sector Approaches Midwives NursesPhoto by Amadou Iam Diallo for IntraHealth InternationalClassroom to Care: Training to Expand Access to Maternal and Child Health

New Approach Helps Nursing and Midwifery Schools in Mali Improve Curricula and Achieve Accreditation

kseaton — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 15:33:54 +0000

New Approach Helps Nursing and Midwifery Schools in Mali Improve Curricula and Achieve Accreditation kseaton November 29, 2021 November 29, 2021

Eight nursing and midwifery schools in Mali—a country that has long experienced a shortage of qualified nurses and midwives—are now accredited and using a competency-based approach curriculum, compared to only three schools in 2017.

Thanks to a partnership between IntraHealth International and Mali’s Ministry of Health and Social Development, the number of accredited nursing and midwifery schools has more than doubled and 829 more nursing and midwifery students are benefitting from a high-quality education, improving the quality of the health workforce in Mali.

A new report—Accreditation of private midwifery and nursing schools in Mali: a local sustainable solution to increasing the supply of qualified health workers—outlines how the partnership has worked to improve the quality of education in Mali’s private universities, better manage the country’s available health workers, and initiate a decentralized strategy for health worker recruitment and motivation.

Mali has an average of 6 health workers per 10,000 people (the World Health Organization recommends 23 skilled health workers per 10,000 people). Northern regions such as Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal have 4, 5, and 13 health workers per 10,000 people respectively, while the capital of Bamako has 23.

We need to focus on our shortage of health workers.

“We need to focus on our shortage of health workers,” says Cheick Touré, IntraHealth’s country director in Mali. “We know that the density of health workers is high in the cities but in the rural areas it’s very low. We need to recruit nurses and community health workers there to provide services for women in their communities.”

Since 2017, the USAID-funded Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity, led by IntraHealth, worked with the Ministry of Health and Social Development and Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in six regions to train more health workers by improving the quality of education in private universities, better manage available health workers through the iHRIS health workforce information system, and address the low rate of retention of health workers in rural and hard-to-reach areas.

As part of this effort, IntraHealth collaborated with national and regional decision-makers using the West African Health Organization (WAHO) accreditation system to help 10 private nursing schools introduce WAHO’s regionally accepted, competency-based curriculum in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH).

Accreditation is an essential part of improving health training institutions—a key mechanism for assuring quality and protecting public health and safety. Additionally, having an accredited institution increases the number of student applications, thus expanding the pipeline of new health workers. As a result of this work:

90.5% of students at these schools demonstrated the required competencies to progress to the next year level.
203 students completed their clinical practice internships in rural and peri-urban areas within Mali’s northern regions.
89% of students at the Gao Nursing School in northern Mali passed their national exams compared to a national rate of less than 50%.
93% of the graduates recruited by South Sudan’s Ministry of Health and Social Development, communities, and nongovernmental organizations are still working the northern regions.

“Thanks to the competency-based approach implemented by the project to strengthen human resources for health, the student is now placed at the heart of their learning,” says Dr. Mamadou Maiga, a teacher at the Gao Nursing School.

Introducing a standardized regional curriculum in Mali has helped improved graduation rates and student enrollment as well as the quality of health worker training. IntraHealth’s support to the regulatory bodies that oversee accreditation has helped more schools sustainably complete the process in Mali. Now, other countries in the region who similarly rely on private sector institutions for health workers have a model to utilize to increase their own health workforce.

IntraHealth International is now partnering with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and 12 private schools in Mali, Senegal, and Niger to sustainably increase the number of qualified, well-trained nurses who can serve rural communities in these countries—all of which face a critical shortage of health workers. To learn more about the new Improving Maternal and Child Health Care in Rural West Africa Through High-Quality Education for Nurses and Midwives project, click here.

Mali Education & Performance Health workforce development Health Workers Midwives NursesHealth workers at their graduation ceremony in Gao, Mali in February 2020. Photo by Doucoure Sekou for IntraHealth International.Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity

New Program to Train More Student Nurses in Francophone West Africa, Bring Care to More Communities

kseaton — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 17:05:58 +0000

New Program to Train More Student Nurses in Francophone West Africa, Bring Care to More Communities kseaton September 16, 2021 September 22, 2021 Chapel Hill, NC

Through the new Classroom to Care project, IntraHealth International is partnering with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and 12 private schools in Mali, Senegal, and Niger to sustainably increase the number of qualified, well-trained nurses who can serve rural communities in these countries—all of which face a critical shortage of health workers. Takeda announced this week that IntraHealth is one of the recipients of their 2021 Global CSR Program, which will fund this work.

IntraHealth and Takeda will work with four schools in each of the three countries over the course of five years, helping them partner effectively with the public sector, achieve the appropriate accreditations, enhance competency-based curricula, create effective learning approaches, and graduate students from underserved areas—all as part of our effort to ensure that everyone everywhere has the health care they need to thrive.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Takeda to help solve the shortage of highly trained nurses in rural communities in Mali, Senegal, and Niger,” says Polly Dunford, president and CEO of IntraHealth. “This partnership will revolutionize the way health workers are trained at private nursing schools, improve health care in the communities that need it most, and draw more brilliant young students to the profession.”

IntraHealth has been working with health workers in West Africa for over four decades. In Mali, Niger, and Senegal, we’ve collaborated with government and civil society partners to help the health sector achieve national health workforce goals by strengthening health systems and the health workforce and increasing access to lifesaving maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, and nutrition services. Highlights include:

More health workers for rural Mali

In Mali, IntraHealth and the Ministry of Health developed a national training policy and strategy to help rural regions develop, manage, and retain their own health workers. For example, the Gao Nursing School, which IntraHealth has supported since it opened in 2001, is now responsible for graduating 89% of all the health workers in northern Mali.

“The school has added 1,681 midwives, nurses, and lab technicians to Mali’s health workforce,” says Cheick Touré, IntraHealth’s Mali country director. “It was such a successful program that USAID asked us to scale it up and we supported 10 more schools in other parts of the country.”

This new partnership with Takeda is an opportunity to scale up this successful approach in additional Sahel countries that are facing the same critical shortages of health workers in rural and underserved areas.

Integrated service delivery

As part of IntraHealth’s INSPiRE West Africa regional project, IntraHealth developed an integration model that includes health worker training curricula and job aids, data collection tools that reinforce integrated service delivery, and virtual and in-person mentoring and supervision.

After the model was introduced in Niger, immediate postpartum family planning increased by 96% in all INSPiRE-supported facilities in from 2018 to 2019.

Safe, home-based services during COVID-19

As part of The Challenge Initiative in Senegal, we’ve been training high-performing local health workers to coach community health workers and organize household visits, which help minimize large gatherings at health facilities during COVID-19. This also provides women who are unable or unwilling to visit a health center with family planning information, counseling, and infection-prevention guidance from a safe distance.

In collaboration with Takeda, IntraHealth will build on these experiences in the region to train more than 14,000 nursing students so they can provide high-quality health care to the clients in their communities and help schools continue to produce nursing graduates who can do so for generations to come.

IntraHealth will partner with Empower School of Health, a leading global digital learning and capacity-building organization, to develop an eLearning Management System and RMNCH learning modules to respond to project needs.

Mali Niger Senegal Education & Performance Gender Equality Health Workers Classroom to Care: Training to Expand Access to Maternal and Child Health

Assessing Application of WHO Global Standards For Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Five West African Countries

kmelton — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:18:34 +0000

Assessing Application of WHO Global Standards For Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Five West African Countries 2021 kmelton June 21, 2021

This technical brief examines the results of the CS4FP Plus 2019 study of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) service delivery in five West African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and the degree to which ASRH service delivery in those countries aligns with the WHO/UNAIDS’s Global Standards for Quality Health Care Services for Adolescents. The brief also includes recommendations for policymakers and program planners in the five countries.

Download

Countries Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger

Projects Civil Society for Family Planning

Topics Family Planning & Reproductive Health Youth Engagement

By Cheick Oumar Touré, Moctar Diallo, Demba Traoré, Sujata Bijou

Francophone West Africa Adds 3.8 Million Family Planning Users

kseaton — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 16:27:36 +0000

Francophone West Africa Adds 3.8 Million Family Planning Users kseaton June 09, 2021 June 09, 2021

IntraHealth International’s Civil Society for Family Planning (CS4FP) project partnered with nine countries in francophone West Africa to add 3.8 million additional family planning users and doubled the number of women using modern contraceptives in the region.

For the past ten years, CS4FP has been working with strong, high-functioning civil society coalitions, young people, and religious and traditional leaders in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo (Ouagadougou Partnership countries) to collaborate with and advocate to governments to implement their national family planning costed implementation plans (CIPs). The IntraHealth team established and supported national coalitions in all nine Ouagadougou Partnership (OP) countries to unify and strengthen civil society and hold governments accountable for their family planning commitments.

And the project helped build a stronger, more coordinated civil society, which achieved several significant policy changes, including:

Free family planning services in Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo.
Integration of comprehensive sexual education in the national curriculum in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, and Mauritania.
Amendment of the national family planning guidelines in all nine countries to allow community-based distribution of contraception.
Partnership with 285 active religious and traditional leaders and 589 youth ambassadors to raise awareness and break down cultural barriers to family planning.
Engagement with religious and traditional leaders and youth ambassadors in developing the CIPs in their respective countries.

The project’s success can be attributed to CS4FP’s efforts to support, coordinate, and strengthen civil society coalitions (and the civil society organizations they worked with), young people, and religious leaders.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)

CS4FP organized workshops for CSOs on good governance, advocacy, resource mobilization, and fundraising. The project also secured commitments from CSOs to join or create family planning coalitions and provided small-scale grants for family planning advocacy. As part of this effort, CSO coalitions engaged young people and religious and traditional leaders to help encourage family planning in their communities. They developed a governance charter, mobilized resources, and developed key strategies for the future.

And they mobilized resources to stay sustainable—for each $1 provided by CS4FP, the coalitions raised an additional $5 to support their family planning activities.

Youth Ambassadors

CS4FP worked as advocates with youth ambassador networks in every country to ensure that national family planning plans and policies reflected the needs and wants of young people.

To do this, the project trained young people on family planning, social media, strategic planning for community mobilization, and resource mobilization to encourage sustainability. Youth networks were active on social media and digital messaging platforms and wrote blog posts on the CS4FP website to share their personal experiences with their peers.

Many adult networks implemented campaigns in their communities to raise awareness and share information about youth-focused family planning activities. As part of the information-sharing effort, youth participated in intergenerational dialogues in their countries and built a regional network linked to the CSO coalitions. Young leaders also received small-scale grants for family planning promotion.

Religious and Traditional Leaders

The project also worked with religious and traditional leaders in all nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries to encourage family planning. Organized at regional levels through the Alliance des leaders Religieux et Traditionnels pour la Santé et le Développement en Afrique de l’Ouest (Alliance of Religious and Traditional Leaders for the Health and Development of West Africa) with CS4FP support, religious and traditional leaders in the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries and Chad worked together to develop their family planning strategic plan for the next three years.

They participated in family planning workshops to discuss religious texts and the intersection of religion and family planning, and to dispel myths and misinformation about reproductive health. They then developed booklets with key family planning supportive messages and received small grants for advocacy and community mobilization.

CS4FP’s support to civil society coalitions, youth ambassadors, and religious and traditional leaders helped these groups to become well-versed in family planning advocacy and resource mobilization and allowed them to take more ownership to ensure their autonomy and continued success.

These actions helped the West Africa region exceed their FP2020 goals, the only region to do so. Now, there is greater unity and better collaboration among civil society organizations, youth, religious leaders, and Ministries of Health, which has led to more and sustainable family planning and reproductive health activities in francophone West Africa.

CS4FP was funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dutch Government through the Embassy in Benin.

Benin Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo Family Planning & Reproductive Health Community Health Youth Engagement Civil Society for Family Planning

Analysis of Inequalities and Discrimination in the Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of Women in Preservice Education and Health Care Facilities in Mali

kmelton — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 19:16:15 +0000

Analysis of Inequalities and Discrimination in the Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of Women in Preservice Education and Health Care Facilities in Mali 2020 kmelton March 03, 2021

This technical brief discusses approaches and results from the Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity.

English

Countries Mali

Projects Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity

Topics Education & Performance Gender Equality Health Workforce & Systems

By Jeanne Amadiguin Tessougué, Constance Newman, Cheick Oumar Touré

Contribution of the Gao Nursing School to the Training and Retention of Health Workers in the Northern Regions of Mali

kmelton — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 20:30:19 +0000

Contribution of the Gao Nursing School to the Training and Retention of Health Workers in the Northern Regions of Mali 2020 kmelton February 09, 2021

This technical brief discusses approaches and results from the Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity.

English

Countries Mali

Projects Mali Human Resources for Health Strengthening Activity

Topics Education & Performance Health workforce development Health Workforce & Systems Performance & Quality Improvement Quality of Care

By Jeanne Amadiguin Tessougué, Sujata Bijou

Developing Composite Indicators for Integrated Family Planning; Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health; and Nutrition Services

kmelton — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 22:02:50 +0000

Developing Composite Indicators for Integrated Family Planning; Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health; and Nutrition Services 2020 kmelton January 04, 2021

IntraHealth's INSPiRE project is designed to catalyze a model of integrated service delivery—and associated performance indicators—into national policy and practice in francophone West Africa. This technical brief describes the development of composite indicators of FP/MNCH/N (family planning; maternal, newborn, and child health; and nutrition) integration for the project.

Download

Countries Benin Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo

Projects INSPiRE

Topics Family Planning & Reproductive Health Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Nutrition

By Marguerite Ndour, Roy Jacobstein, Sujata Bijou