Legacy of the MacArthur Foundation’s Maternal Health Quality of Care Strategy in India

Legacy of the MacArthur Foundation’s Maternal Health Quality of Care Strategy in India

Reflections and Findings from the Endline Evaluation
Published: Feb 28, 2020
Publisher: Washington, DC: Mathematica
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Authors

So O'Neil

Emma Pottinger

Key Findings
  • Grants under the strategy developed 20 curricula for training providers in delivering quality maternal health care. The number of providers trained over time steadily increased, with more than 40,000 providers trained across the country over the four-year MHQoC strategy.
  • The strategy established 8 training centers, supported 422 facilities to become accredited, and established quality assurance procedures at 538 facilities over 3.5 years.
  • More than 20,000 women and community members have engaged in efforts to build community accountability for quality maternal health services as a result of MHQoC strategy funding.
  • Strategy activities have demonstrated localized success of MHQoC improvement efforts in facilities and among providers, such as nurse-mentorship programs and public-private partnerships to operate high quality health centers, but more information is needed on what works at scale to put guidelines into practice and institutionalize quality improvement.

The maternal health quality of care (MHQoC) strategy in India aimed to catalyze a shift in focus within the maternal health community from increasing access to maternal health services to improving the quality of these services. This report presents the findings from Mathematica’s cumulative review of the MHQoC strategy, which offers an assessment of how the strategy contributed to the quality of maternal health care and considers the implications for the future of the field. Results are presented for the MHQoC strategy’s three core substrategies: supply, demand, and advocacy.

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