Improving quality of care for mothers and newborns

The Maternal and Newborn Improvement Quality of Care (MANI-QC)  programme focuses on improving the quality of health services for mothers and babies in Nandi, Kericho, Mombasa and Kwale counties in Kenya.

Funded by UKAid from 2019 to 2022, we are working with the Ministry of Health and other development partners to contribute to a reduction in maternal and newborn mortality.

Building on what works

MANI-QC builds on the successes and lessons from Options’ work on of the MANI programme in Bungoma county (2015 - 2018).

In this setting, we increased the number of facilities providing Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) services within the county from one in 2014, to 29 in 2018, and increased the skilled birth attendance rate by 40% (from 42% in 2014 to 82% in 2018).

Our Approach

The MANI-QC approach involves tailoring cost-effective and proven interventions from the MANI programme, and scaling them up in four other counties to accelerate maternal and newborn survival.

The programme is anchored in a health systems approach to improving quality of service delivery by weaving together the following main components:

• Strengthening maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response systems
• Measuring the quality of EmONC services using the bespoke Quality of Institutional Care tools for each county, using mobile technology
• Building the skills and confidence of health professionals to manage obstetric emergencies and newborn care through EmONC mentorship.
• Targeted health systems strengthening support to bolster interventions at critical points

Project outcomes

The programme is increasing the proportion of maternal and perinatal deaths that are investigated, reviewed and reported in the District Health Information System, promoting a culture of local data use and data- driven action planning and building health worker capacity to manage clinical complications. The project is building each county’s capacity to sustain effective accountability systems beyond the programme period through targeted planning and budgeting support to leverage available resources for quality improvement.