The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health meet on accountability for quality of care

The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network) held its 2nd meeting on Demonstrating accountability and learning from implementation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting brought together representatives from the ten countries that lead the Quality of Care Network and partners to share their progress, learn from their experiences in developing quality of care programmes, and inform the future directions of the Quality of Care Network.

In 2016, the World Health Organization identified improving quality of care for women and children as a priority in addressing preventable maternal and child mortality and ensure that ‘Every woman, child and adolescent receives quality care throughout the continuum of care’. In response to this vision, ten countries, supported by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA, and in collaboration with partners, joined forces and established the Quality of Care Network in February 2017.

The ten Quality of Care Network countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda - are aiming to halve the number of maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths in participating health facilities by 2022 and to improve the experience of care. Under the leadership of Ministries of Health of the participating countries, the Quality of Care Network supports the implementation of national strategies for quality of care in the health sector by using maternal, newborn and child health as a pathfinder and pursuing four strategic objectives:

Leadership: Build and strengthen national institutions and mechanisms for improving quality of care in the health sector.

Action: Accelerate and sustain implementation of quality of care improvements for mothers and newborns.

Learning: Facilitate learning, share knowledge and generate evidence on quality of care.

Accountability: Develop, strengthen and sustain institutions and mechanisms for accountability for quality of care.

Two years on, these pathfinder countries are sharing their experience and know-how in developing and sustaining quality of care programmes, at facility, district and state or national level. One strong message that is emerging is that sustained quality of care requires changes at all level of the health system, facilitated by: on-site support for quality improvement in facilities, data system to report on process and patient outcomes, learning system for solution seeking, community engagement to respond to needs, and agile management system to respond to continuous changes to sustain improvements.

Representatives from the Ministries of Health of each country, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, bilateral development partners, non-governmental organisations, academia, as well as from health facilities attended the meeting.