Improving coverage measurement

Many health groups around the world have described the need to improve measurement for mothers and newborns. These include the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) and the Global Strategy for Women, Children and Adolescent’s Health 2016-2030.

IDEAS aims to improve the measurement of priority indicators for maternal and newborn health by testing the coverage estimates derived from multiple sources – including household interviews, service user exit interviews, last event interviews with health facility staff and review of facility records – against gold standard coverage estimates obtained by the observation of births.

We do this, for example, in Gombe State, Nigeria, when we use birth observations as gold standard measures of health worker behaviour to assess the validity of routine data recorded in healthcare registers, and of women’s reports during exit interview and at subsequent household follow-up. We also undertake qualitative research to better understand how women perceive respectful maternity care in Nigeria.

IDEAS team members collaborate closely with ENAP and EPMM metrics working groups to ensure that the learning is relevant to global and country based stakeholders.