Demand Side Pilot to Increase Institutional Deliveries for Women and Girls in Rural Areas.

Descriptions

Despite improvements in maternal mortality rates the number of women and neonates that die during and immediately after childbirth remains unacceptably high in Mozambique. One of the factors contributing to this is the proportion of births attended by health personnel. The proxy indicator for this, the institutional delivery rate has stagnated at 55 % since 2008. In rural areas this is 44%. Most interventions to date have focused on supply side interventions. However, many of the barriers lie outside of the health system (e.g. transport). The Department for International Development (DFID) seeks an experienced service provider to implement a pilot programme to evaluate a demand side intervention to increase the utilisation and quality of institutional deliveries in rural Mozambique. This pilot will test whether demand side interventions are an effective way to increase institutional deliveries, when used to complement supply-side interventions. The pilot will also focus on the quality of services delivered. The expected outcomes of the scheme will be: a) increased access to, and improved quality of, maternal and neo-natal health services in the intervention areas; b) improved understanding of the barriers to access maternal and neonatal health services and c) increased evidence on the efficacy and equity of demand side financing schemes in increasing access to a package of safe delivery services. If successful the pilot can be scaled up and contribute to the achievement of MDG 4&5.