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MDG5 Meshwork Newsletter
December 2011
This is the internal newsletter of the MDG5 Meshwork for Improving Maternal Health, brought to you by the Linking & Learning team. This newsletter keeps partners and interested organizations or individuals up-to-date on the latest news and progress in the different projects (the Private-Public Partnerships, PPPs), meetings and relevant new publications.
The MDG5 Meshwork for Improving Maternal Health is a cross-sector, cross-disciplinary network of organizations based in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and the Netherlands. The purpose of the Meshwork is to develop innovative and effective partnerships that contribute to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5, to improve maternal health.
Highlights from the MDG5 Meshwork projects:
1. Introduction of the new Linking and Learning coordinator
2. Planning workshop PPP-Health Sierra Leone
3. Update on Sierra Leone projects
4. Update on Afghanistan projects
5. Oxytocin project
6. Linking and Learning USB stick for Sierra Leone partners
7. Announcement expert meeting on the role of community based attendants in improving maternal health
8. Maternal Health Portal
9. MDG5 Meshwork Website
Did you miss a newsletter? You can read previous issues here:
Newsletter 1 November 2009
Newsletter 2 March 2010
Newsletter 3 November 2010
Newsletter 4 August 2011
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Highlights from the projects
Introduction of the new Linking and Learning coordinator
From 1st November 2011, Linking and Learning has a new coordinator: Maryse Kok. Maryse takes the role from Merel Martens, who left the Royal Tropical Institute in October 2011. Merel is travelling in India and Indonesia and we wish her a very good break. We would like to thank Merel very much for her dedication, her ability to bring partners from different backgrounds together and the good coordinating work during the past years.
Maryse started her career at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport as policy advisor on sexual and reproductive health and HIV and for the past years, she was health management and primary health care advisor in Mwanza district, Malawi. As a junior advisor at KIT, she will spend part of her time on coordination of Linking and Learning activities for the MDG5 Meshwork. Maryse can be reached via maryse.kok@kit.nl, phone number 020-5688388. Of course, the e-mail address info@mdg5-meshwork.org is also still available.
2012 will be the last year of the MDG5 Meshwork in its current shape. The Linking & Learning budget is smaller than the previous years, due to the fact that the PPP Oxytocine and the film project have ended and are not contributing to the Linking & Learning budget. That is why the Linking and Learning team together with the Coordination Group have set new priorities. The choice is to focus on lessons learned and presentations of the results of all activities done in the past years. The advocacy component, the strategic thinking about future collaboration, events and the collaboration meeting preparation will not be continued. This means that the work of the Center for Human Emergence has been brought back to a minimum, existing mainly of a close contact with Anne-Marie Voorhoeve, as one of the original founders of the MDG5Meshwork.
Planning workshop PPP-Health Sierra Leone
On 9 and 10 September 2011, a planning workshop with a majority of the PPP-Health Sierra Leone partners took place. The main goal of the meeting was to come up with a 2012 operational plan and budget. This was done through:
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Discussions on strengths and weaknesses of the program concluded from the mid-term review report
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A brief overview of the results of the program up till now
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Group and plenary discussions on the way forward
Shortly, the strengths of the program are identified as the strong commitment and involvement of all partners, the multi-stakeholder approach and good embedment of the program in the situation and policies of Sierra Leone. Weaknesses are the sometimes unclear roles and responsibilities of the steering committee, communication between partners involved and difficulties in synergy between different program interventions.
The results achieved are in all components of the program in 2011:
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Strengthening human resources for health system
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Joint knowledge system for M&E and research
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Malaria
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Strengthening of professional organizations in health
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Awareness raising in Sierra Leone and the Netherlands
For the activities in 2012, a lot of them are ongoing activities from the previous year. Amongst others, these are operational support to the School of Midwifery Makeni and harmonization of learning programmes with the West African Curriculum for Midwives, conducting action research, building of research capacity in Sierra Leone, organizational support to the Sierra Leone Midwives Association and continuation of the twinning program.
New strategies and activities for 2012 are:
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Improved program management and governance. The role and composition of the Steering Committee was clarified.
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Improved program coordination and management through Implementing Partners Forums in both Sierra Leone and the Netherlands.
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Lobby and advocacy by the Steering Committee for the development of a vision on midwifery by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, in consultation with all relevant partners. The future of the School of Midwifery Makeni is dependent on this vision.
The above stated activities are part of 4 key result areas, written down in the operational plan and budget for 2012:
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Strengthening human resources for health system
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Joint knowledge system for M&E and research
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Strengthening of professional organizations in health
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Improved program management and governance
Update on Sierra Leone projects
The Koninklijke Nederlandse Organisatie van Verloskundigen (KNOV) supported the Sierra Leone Midwives Association (SLMA) by organizing a financial management workshop, a team building workshop and a twin to twin action planning workshop in December 2011. For the team building workshop, team work between Makeni and Freetown schools as well as the executive board of the SLMA was encouraged. The twin to twin action planning workshop focused on support to the actions plans in Sierra Leone (the same workshop was given in the Netherlands earlier). Furthermore, the KNOV together with the SLMA developed a flyer (including a new logo) about the SLMA which will be distributed through the members. SLMA member badges are developed as well. During 2012, regular follow ups to support SLMA in the making of financial reports will be done and a book keeping programme will be installed. One of the priority activities in 2012 is a financial management and fundraising workshop (so that SLMA will become and stay independent). Another activity will be follow up workshops for twins to actualize their action plans so that they can be used in practice and shown in the exhibition.
The Maastricht University Centre for International Cooperation in Academic Development (MUNDO) has started with making an inventory of needs at the midwifery school in Makeni. That resulted in 3 workshops in which the basics of curriculum development were dealt with. The unit for antenatal care was developed and will form an example for the other units that need to be developed by the staff. In the workshops, there was also attention for construction of skill training materials and school management issues. Peter Hessels from the Royal Tropical Institute has supported by setting up an in school digital area where information can be stored and found. In 2012, the focus will be on quality assurance. For example, trainings of supervisors of the students and support to the development of a school management plan will be some of the activities.
The Royal Tropical Institute conducted 2 workshops in Sierra Leone in December 2011. The aim of the first workshop was to train participants from the University of Sierra Leone in qualitative data analysis and the second was a writing workshop for staff at the university. The last workshop resulted in 9 draft papers to be submitted for publication in scientific journals, on different subjects. There was a hard working spirit among the participants, who finally got time and good recommendations for writing about their research done.
Preparations are done for the action research on community empowering education to address gender norms and values, traditional beliefs and practices around childbirth and prevention of early marriage and teenage pregnancy. The WHO will take the lead to organize a meeting in Sierra Leone in March or April, to bring together organizations involved in addressing teenage pregnancy and sharing evidence about what works.
Update on Afghanistan projects
In December 2011, the director of the Cordaid office in Kabul, Dr. Rohullah Amin and the programme officer gender and maternal health, Dr. Zuhal Haares were visiting the Netherlands. Amongst others, they spoke to the Dutch parliament about health issues in Afghanistan. They also presented the work of Cordaid Afghanistan to different audiences. Regarding maternal healthCordaid works in the provinces of Uruzgan and Nangarhar (training of community midwifery), in Kandahar(training of midwives and nurses), and in Parwan and Balkh (door to door campaign on safe motherhood).
The preference of Afghan people is to have big families. Contraceptive use is still low and only available for married women. From a cultural and religious perspective, families think it’s better for a women to deliver at home. This is changing a bit now, since more female health workers whodeliver antenatal care and more midwives have been trained. Basic health care is free since 2005. Still, maternal health care is not accessible for many women in Afghanistan, especially those living in the rural remote areas. With the above projects more midwives are placed in the rural area. They are recruited for training from their own village and after the training they go back to serve the mothers there. The figures in the project areas show increases in antenatal care and deliveries in attendance of skilled personnel.
In 2012, a mothers night will be organized in Afghanistan, gathering together health workers, midwives and NGOs from all over the country.
Oxytocin project
On 4-5 October 2011, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign and WHO organized a stakeholders meeting called “The role of uterotonics in reducing postpartum haemorrhage (PPH): what next?”.
For medical management of PPH, the WHO recommends oxytocin as first-line treatment. Oxytocin is not heat stable and therefore it cannot be used in community settings and health facilities without a functioning refrigerator. This is contributing to many maternal deaths in developing countries.
The meeting focused on:
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The current state of knowledge (effectiveness, cost, user-friendliness, services delivery, etc.) with respect to existing and new uterotonic products, with particular emphasis on oxytocin preparations
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the most appropriate product(s) for various service delivery contexts and the recommended next steps for improving access to these products
At this moment, a consensus document is being written based on the outcomes of this meeting. More information will be available soon on the Meshwork website.
Linking and Learning USB stick for Sierra Leone partners
The Royal Tropical Institute is currently working on the development of an USB stick for all partners in Sierra Leone. The stick contains a simple version of the Maternal Health Portal. Furthermore, it contains the website of the School of Midwifery Makeni and several other documents and guidelines. In the beginning of 2012, all information will be installed on the computers of the school, so that students have access to good information sources regarding maternal health.
Announcement expert meeting on the role of community based attendants in improving maternal health
In May 2012, KIT and CORDAID will organize an expert meeting on the role of community based attendants in improving maternal health in collaboration with WHO, UNFPA and WHO.A lot of women in developing countries don’t have access to maternal health care, especially women living in rural areas. This expert meeting focuses on possible measures that could be taken in places where there are insufficient skilled birth attendants. It will particularly look at the role of community based birth attendants (including Traditional Birth attendants and Community Health Workers). Which kinds of training and other actions need to be undertaken to make sure that community based maternal health workers can do the job in a good and effective way?
During the expert meeting, several representatives from countries with successful and unsuccessful implementation of community based maternal health workers, policy developers (from UN), researchers and other experts on this topic will be invited. The meeting will focus on:
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Evidence that is there on the role of community based attendants in improving maternal health
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Identification if gaps in knowledge
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Development of a research an policy agenda
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Agreement for further action
De meeting will follow up on a WHO meeting held on 16-19 April 2012 about task shifting. Our expert meeting will take into account the drafted guidelines for task shifting when it comes to community based birth attendants and look at implications for implementation and training.
Selected Meshworkers and Share-Net members will get an invitation for this expert meeting when the final date is set.
Maternal Health Portal
Save yourself time looking for maternal health related literature and visit the Maternal Health Portal! The Maternal Health Portal shares examples of practical projects and initiatives that have been undertaken with the explicit objective of contributing to MDG5. All articles found through the portal are freely accessible.
MDG5 Meshwork Website
Do you want to stay up-to-date with activities in other projects? Please visit the MDG5 Meshwork website: www.mdg5-meshwork.org. If you are a partner in one of the Meshwork's projects you can create a profile on the website, which gives you access to all relevant project documents, partner information, and the forum.
If you would like to get a short introduction, or if you have any other question regarding the website, you can make an appointment with the Linking & Learning coordinator by sending an e-mail to info@mdg5-meshwork.org.
Keep up to date through our website
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