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

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
News
Strengthening the measurement of key health indicators in Ethiopia

Like many other countries, Ethiopia has gaps in their Health Management Information System (HMIS), as well as insufficient mechanisms for data...

Ethiopia Community-based newborn care Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Capacity strengthening
News
Technical consultations on postnatal care

Postnatal care can be provided at home or at a health facility. International data however shows that compared to other maternal and newborn...

General Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Evidence for policy and practice Intervention coverage
Blog Post
Better quality routine health data through a WhatsApp group? What comes out of the Data Quality Workshops in Gombe State

To strengthen the quality of routine maternal and newborn health data in Gombe State in 2017 the IDEAS project initiated a total of four data...

Nigeria Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Local data use
News
Where do we stand? Monitoring and measuring progress in maternal, newborn and child health

A new article, published in The Lancet journal, looks at the current status of monitoring and measurement in RMNCAH&N. The article points out...

General Improving coverage measurement Tracking progress Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Intervention coverage Research findings
News
Welcome to the new IDEAS website

The IDEAS project aims to improve the health and survival of mothers and babies through generating evidence to inform policy and practice in...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement
Report
Informed Decisions for Actions in Maternal and Newborn Health 2010–17 Report

  Back in 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle developed a new strategy for the coming years, outlining how they might achieve...

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 Intervention coverage Local data use Research findings Scale-up
Blog Post
Taking stock – Seven years of IDEAS

A team of about 20 researchers and professional support staff, employed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, set off to find out...

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
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