The USAID Office of Health Systems’ ASSIST Project is a five-year global project that supports Millennium Development Goals and Post-MDGs by:
- Testing and implementing innovative, cutting-edge quality improvement and service delivery approaches in MNCH, such as collaborative improvement, process redesign, and integrating routine and complications care across system levels
- Developing, testing, and disseminating technical frameworks, approaches, and tools that can increase the efficiency, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of health system strengthening and quality improvement initiatives in support of the USAID EPCMD strategy, including strategies to integrate gender considerations in care delivery
- Building government and implementing partner capacity to apply improvement methods across health system levels (community, clinic, hospital, district, regional, central) to improve, scale up, and sustain high-impact, low-cost, people-centered MNCH and family planning services for leading causes of maternal newborn and child morbidity and mortality in USAID priority countries
- Strengthening frontline health worker and manager skills, motivation, and performance through integrated clinical and quality improvement capacity building and through engagement of health workers in making improvements in their local health care systems and processes
- Supporting the development and testing of MNCH quality of care indicators, strengthening routine health information systems to enable regular tracking of quality measures at service delivery level, and promoting accountability at global, national, and sub-national levels
Currently operating in 21 countries, the project supports the application of modern improvement methods by host country providers and managers in USAID-assisted countries and seeks to generate new knowledge to increase the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of applying improvement methods in low- and middle-income countries. These activities seek to implement evidence-based practices, not only for antenatal, intra- and post-partum, postnatal, and early childhood care, but also to prevent and treat the leading causes of death across the life course at all levels of health service delivery system. The project also works to strengthen community-based services and community linkages with facility-based care as well as continuity of care across different levels of health service delivery.
Learn more about our work to improve maternal and newborn health in this short report.
Visit our USAID ASSIST Knowledge Portal MNCH Page for more information abour work to improve health outcomes for mothers,newborns and children in low- and middle-income countries.
