Aga Khan Foundation Canada

Published purpose

The goal of this project is to significantly improve maternal and newborn health for beneficiaries through improving the availability of quality maternal and newborn health services in underserved districts; and increasing the utilization of maternal and newborn health services for women and their families in target districts of all seven districts of Mwanza region, Tanzania. The project directly targets pregnant mothers and newborns. Beneficiaries also include men of reproductive age who would benefit from health promotion and sensitization activities aimed at improving maternal and newborn health outcomes. IMPACT increases access to quality services across the continuum of care, from community to facility, while strengthening leadership capacity at the health facility, local authority and community levels; and increasing community utilization of maternal and newborn health services Project activities include: (1) repairing, upgrading and equipping 80 public health facilities; (2) delivering fully functional basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) at 67 dispensaries and health centres and comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services (CEmONC ) at 13 hospitals or health centers; (3) providing training and supportive supervision, in collaboration with the Regional and Community Health Management Teams, to enhance health facility managers’ ability to plan, budget and lead quality service delivery; (4) training and empowering 80 village health committees to build linkages with community health structures and effectively plan and enable a maternal and newborn health-supportive community environment; and (5) building the capacity of health workers and community health workers in high-impact packages such as Helping Babies Breathe, Kangaroo Mother Care, EmONC and Focused Antenatal Care. The project is implemented in collaboration with Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania, Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Medical Services.