Madam Akua Kwateng-Addo
THE UNITED States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have shared new strategies and tools needed to help improve maternal and child health in Ghana.
This was after the CRS and GHS, with funding from USAID, had successfully partnered to implement the four-year ‘Encouraging Positive Practices for Improving Child Survival (EPPICS) Project’ in the East Mamprusi District of the Northern Region.
The project was reported to have assisted the three organisations in contributing significantly to the improvement of service delivery and overcoming harmful cultural practices that serve as barriers to skilled healthcare for maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition services in the district.
The eight high impact strategies were used by CRS, GHS, with additional support from the University of Development Studies (UDS) and the beneficiary communities, to improve maternal and child health in the East Mamprusi District.
They included, among others, ‘Council of Champions’ used to engage custodians of tradition to act as change agents, repositioning of traditional birth attendants as link providers to health facilities, and use of modified motor tricycles rural ambulances.
During the project timeframe from October 2011 through September 2015, East Mamprusi reportedly advanced from being worst-performing district in the Northern Region in 2010 to the best-performing district overall in 2014 and the best-performing district for Maternal Child Health (MCH) indicators in 2015.
At project start, maternal and infant mortality and morbidity was high in East Mamprusi District with 240 rural communities, largely due to limited physical access to health facilities and traditional practices that put mothers and newborns at risk, DAILY GUIDE gathered.
Institutional maternal mortality reduced 131 percent from 295 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2011 to 81 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 due to the EPPICS project.
Skilled assisted deliveries in the district accordingly increased from 43 percent at baseline to 76 percent at end line.
The EPPICS project, this paper understands, served a total of 58,634 beneficiaries in the district, including 30,713 women of reproductive age and 27,921 children under five years of age.
It also assisted an additional 79, 616 beneficiaries indirectly through assistance to family members and activities that helped to remove cultural barriers to positive health behaviours by modifying harmful practices, rituals, attitudes and beliefs.
Speaking at the dissemination workshop for the EPPICS project on Thursday at the Mensvick Hotel in Accra, Ghana Country Representative of CRS, Kris Ozar, explained that “communities and front line health workers have incredible potential to improve health and well-being.”
The workshop was organised by Newmark Group Limited under the theme: ‘Sustainable Health Systems to Operationalise the CHPS Initiative in Ghana and Achieve the Health Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons and Tools from the Encouraging Positive Practices for Improving Child Survival (EPPICS) Project’.
It brought together key stakeholders in the health sector, academia and international agencies.
According to the CRS representative, “In partnering with Ghana Health Service and East Mamprusi community leaders, stakeholders were equipped with knowledge and tools to serve as agents for change in their own communities, with excellent results.”
He said a total $1.8 million was spent on the project during the period under review, announcing that CRS would in the near future invest $7 million in the EPPICS project.
That, he said, would help assist the partners in expanding the project to six districts, three each in the Northern and Upper East regions.
He was hopeful that other stakeholders would find strategies used in the EPPICS useful for their own works.
Director of Health, Population and Nutrition, USAID Ghana, Akua Kwateng-Addo, observed that USAID would continue to support increased access to quality health services, increase availability of community-based health resources, strengthen health systems and improve governance and accountability in the health sector.
Health Program Manager, CRS, Mohammed Ali, in an interview with the media urged non-governmental organisations in the sector to engage communities in which they operate to ensure their programmes succeed.
BY Melvin Tarlue