LSTM’s Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health (CMNH) is delighted to receive an A+ rating in its final review for the Making it Happen (MiH) programme. The rating has been given by the project’s initial and main funder, the Department for International Development (DFID).
The project was made up of three different work packages: Delivering a ‘skills and drills’ emergency obstetric and neonatal care training package (EmOC&NC), so that more woman have access to safe birth attendance; strengthening data collection and use to better understand and evaluate healthcare provision and outcomes; and, strengthening quality improvement methodology to improve care at health facility level.
Since it began in 2013 the programme has scored very highly in its progress reviews, scoring A+ previously. Throughout the life of the project nearly 19,000 healthcare providers have been trained in EmOC&NC while 1,681 Master Trainers have been made available in country. The programme was focused on services for women and girls and, by increasing safe delivery, has transformed the lives of many. It is estimated that a total of 13, 161 lives have been saved across the project.
Professor Nynke van den Broek, Head of CMNH said: “We are delighted that our final DFID review is another A+ rating and is testament to the dedication of our staff and volunteers both in the UK and in the countries MiH operated to make a real difference to the lives of women and their babies. The success of the programme is in no small part due to the fact that CMNH has always worked directly in partnership with ministries of health and other government departments in the project countries, with an aim to having countries able to provide their own capacity building. ”