Latest Articles
- Systems approach to monitoring and evaluation guides scale up of the Standard Days Method of family planning in Rwanda
Scaling-up lessons included: (1) simplifying provider training and client materials; (2) ensuring core aspects of the intervention, for example, that the CycleBeads client tool was integrated into the supply chain system; (3) addressing provider-generated medical barriers; and (4) managing threats from changing political and policy environments. A focus on systems, the use of multiple M&E data sources, maintaining fidelity of the innovation, and ongoing environmental scans facilitated scale-up success.
- Evaluation of community-based interventions to improve TB case detection in a rural district of Tanzania
Enlisting traditional healers and pharmacists to improve TB detection contributed 38% to 70% of new smear-positive case notifications per quarter in a rural district of Tanzania.
- Rising cesarean deliveries among apparently low-risk mothers at university teaching hospitals in Jordan: analysis of population survey data, 2002–2012
Cesarean deliveries nationally in Jordan have increased to 30%, including substantial increases among births that are likely low risk for cesarean delivery for the most part. This level is double the threshold that WHO considers reasonable.
- Integrating family planning into postpartum care through modern quality improvement: experience from Afghanistan
Modern quality improvement approaches enabled hospital staff to analyze barriers and identify solutions for “how” to integrate family planning into postpartum care. Private spaces for postpartum family planning (PPFP) counseling, along with involving husbands and mothers-in-law in counseling, substantially increased the percentage of women receiving PPFP counseling and their preferred method before discharge. Self-reported pregnancy was also significantly lower up to 18 months post-discharge compared with women receiving routine services.
- Taking knowledge for health the extra mile: participatory evaluation of a mobile phone intervention for community health workers in Malawi
A participatory evaluation process called Net-Map showed that providing community health workers (CHWs) with mobile phones and essential technical information changed CHWs, from passive recipients of information with little influence to active information agents who sought and provided information to improve health services.
- mHealth resources to strengthen health programs
A suite of resources provides implementation guidance for mHealth initiatives, particularly in less developed countries. The suite includes an eLearning course, online guide, evidence database, and a High-Impact Practices brief, along with the mHealth Working Group and website.
- SMS versus voice messaging to deliver MNCH communication in rural Malawi: assessment of delivery success and user experience
Mobile SMS health messages had higher successful delivery and led to higher intended or actual behavior change among subscribers than voice messages. Providing multiple delivery modalities led to greater overall access.
- It's about time: WHO and partners release programming strategies for postpartum family planning
The postpartum period is a critical time to address high unmet family planning need and to reduce the risks of closely spaced pregnancies. Practical tools are included in the new resource for integrating postpartum family planning at points when women have frequent health system contact, including during antenatal care, labor and delivery, postnatal care, immunization, and child health care.
- Keeping community health workers in Uganda motivated: key challenges, facilitators, and preferred program inputs
In Uganda, community-based health programs using volunteers should focus on strengthening support systems to address transportation and stockout issues and on improving links with the health structure while reinforcing effort recognition, status, and acquisition of new skills.
- Cell phones and CHWs: a transformational marriage?
Mobile phones can be transformative for community health workers (CHWs) in enhancing their influence and status and helping to solve practical problems. While formal intervention research can help advance mHealth application, most progress will come through a “diffusion of innovation” process.