Global Technical Leadership
Through participation in strategic partnerships, MCHIP extended its ability to make an impact on malaria globally. MCHIP’s Director co-chairs and MCHIP’s Malaria Team Leader participated as a technical representative in the Roll Back Malaria-Malaria in Pregnancy (RBM/MIP) Working Group. This contributed to reprioritization of MIP as a core component of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) programming, specifically bringing together reproductive health and malaria control national level representatives together to renew their commitment to working together to develop of country-level action plans to accelerate MIP programs.
MCHIP’s global leadership in MIP contributed to dissemination of WHO IPTp guidelines to countries across sub-Saharan Africa, and documentation and dissemination of technical evidence (such as the review of MIP in low transmission settings and MIP briefs), as well as best practices and lessons learned in MIP programming. And in child health, MCHIP priorities included introducing and expanding community case management for malaria and related approaches that bring services closer to the population.
Program Learning Achievements
- In partnership with technical and programmatic experts from both malaria control and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) programs at global and country levels, developed a Consensus Statement — “Optimizing the Delivery of Malaria in Pregnancy Interventions” — based on WHO policy recommendations together with experience from Ministries of Health and their implementing partners. The Statement is a product of the RBM/MIP Working Group.
- PMI’s Malaria Communities Program (MCP) grantees regularly presented project updates to Ministries of Health, and participated in annual PMI Malaria Operational Plan meetings. HealthPartners Uganda and Lutheran World Relief Mali participated in an MCHIP-hosted webinar on Models for Community-Based Financing in Community-Based Malaria Programming. Other publications and presentations by MCP grantees included: “Empowers Stakeholders to Improve Health” by HealthPartners published in the Uganda Community Based Health Financing Association newsletter January – December 2012 issue; and ERD’s presentations at the 2008 Global Health Council and 2008 RBM Conference, each featuring their MCP project in Angola. In addition, HealthRight Kenya drafted a manuscript entitled, “Investigating the Effectiveness and Acceptance of Using Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Malaria in the North Rift Province, Kenya,” which MCHIP reviewed.
- MCHIP organized an auxiliary event at CORE Group’s Fall Meeting and sponsored seven MCP grantees to present their results.
- To reinforce program learning, MCHIP led a documentation series across five countries (Burkina Faso, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia) of best practices and lessons learned in MIP programming. The MIP documentation series led to country replication and review of MIP programs in seven additional countries resulting in action planning and renewed commitment among RH and malaria control programs. The documentation effort contributed to prioritization of MIP activities; for example, in Senegal the documentation informed annual planning for MIP programming.
How did MCHIP Malaria Team address equity?
Considering the impact of malaria on mothers and children, MCHIP recognized that malaria control is a MNCH issue. As such, MCHIP built programming efforts into and across the MNCH platform of care to ensure that pregnant women and young children were protected and received prompt and correct case management when presenting with signs and symptoms of malaria.
How did the MCHIP Malaria Team address scale?
Working across the continuum of care, MCHIP: fostered partnership at national level to update and disseminate national level policies; promoted smart, integrated care at the facility and community levels to realize comprehensive coverage for pregnant women and young children; and worked with communities to bridge the link between communities and health facilities for optimal coverage.
How did the MCHIP Malaria Team address community? MCHIP provided technical assistance to 20 projects funded by MCP. To do this, MCHIP ensured that grantees had appropriate tools and processes in place in order to build local capacity to undertake community-based malaria prevention and treatment activities, and to build local ownership of malaria control for the long-term. MCHIP provided documentation and dissemination assistance for program learning, including a finding that involvement of community health volunteers and/or health extension workers as well as faith- and community-based organizations is an effective way of increasing knowledge, attitude and practice of the community toward malaria interventions.
How did the MCHIP Malaria Team address quality?
For MCP, MCHIP provided technical assistance to ensure the quality of grantee project planning, data collection and reporting to USAID. This included phone and email contacts and on-site technical assistance visits, as well as review of draft workplans, reports and data collection materials.