Tracking Progress

Despite substantial investments in maternal and newborn health in Ethiopia, Nigeria and India, the coverage of high impact, evidence-based life saving interventions continues to be unacceptably low. 

 

Frequent high-quality contacts between families and frontline workers are critical in ensuring that every woman and every child receive the interventions they need. Yet in 2015 there were too few contacts between families and health workers, and those that did happen included many missed opportunities for health workers to deliver life-saving interventions.

Regular tracking of the progress of effective coverage provides an opportunity for reflection and course-correction in maternal and newborn health programmes.

IDEAS work in tracking progress includes two components. Firstly, together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IDEAS supports its partners in Ethiopia and the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India to produce a maternal and newborn health ‘dashboard’ every six months.

Secondly, IDEAS works in Gombe State in Nigeria to generate primary data for the dashboard through six-monthly health facility surveys and annual household surveys.

Research brief
The Pathway to Improved Maternal and Newborn Health Outcomes in Gombe State, Nigeria

Use of data for maternal and newborn health in Gombe State, Nigeria (Data from February 2016)

Nigeria Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Behaviour change Capacity strengthening Implementation projects Local data use

Published content

News
Celebrating 8 years of IDEAS

Just a few weeks before this exciting milestone the IDEAS team from London, Ethiopia and Nigeria came together for a team retreat to hear from...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement
Journal article
Newborn resuscitation in Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria

This paper published by Josephine Exley, Nasir Umar, Sarah Moxon, Adamu Umar Usman and Tanya Marchant from the IDEAS project, the London School of...

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Intervention coverage Research findings
News
IDEAS at #HSR2018

New evidence presented as posters (above) included: Sustainability for a Village Health Worker scheme in Nigeria Availability of routine facility...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Capacity strengthening Context Economics Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects Implementation strength
News
A successful project – or just good timing? Measuring interventions and their impact on health outcomes

Attributing changes in health outcomes to specific interventions or projects is tricky. Oftentimes coincidental factors, such as the construction...

Ethiopia General Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Implementation projects
News
Improved health systems could prevent over 8 million deaths each year in low- and middle-income countries

Beyond this terrible human cost, poor quality health systems represented enormous economic losses to countries due to lost productivity each year....

General Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Research findings
News
IDEAS Summer Seminar Series

More than seven years later, the team is building on the wealth of data, results, partnerships and learning created in the current second phase of...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Research findings
Journal article
The effect of implementation strength of basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) on facility deliveries and the met need for BEmONC at the primary health care level in Ethiopia

Tailored support, including BEmONC training to providers, mentoring and monitoring through supportive supervision, provision of equipment...

Ethiopia General Community-based newborn care Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Research findings
Blog Post
Slow and steady – validating health data in Gombe State line by line

As an output from our first data quality learning workshop in March 2017, LGA M&E officers and MNCH coordinators were excited about revitalizing...

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evidence for policy and practice Local data use
News
“To know what is happening to women and newborns you need to collect accurate information” Preparing for a health facility survey in Nigeria

One way to measure whether the partner projects that IDEAS works with are making a difference is by continuously checking in with the people and...

Nigeria Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Capacity strengthening Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects Intervention coverage
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