The Government of Canada is committed to improving the health and saving the lives of women and children in developing countries.
On June 25, 2010, under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the leaders of the G-8 nations endorsed the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH). They were joined in this initiative by other nations and organizations, which together committed US$7.3 billion in new funding over five years. Under the Initiative, Canada has committed $1.1 billion in new funding for maternal, newborn, and child health, of which almost $800 million has been announced.
Including new Muskoka Initiative Partnership Program projects announced on September 20, 2011, Canada has now launched 51 Muskoka Initiative projects in 26 countries that are helping to reduce preventable deaths.
The Muskoka Initiative Partnership Program (MIPP)
In total, the MIPP will provide up to $82 million for 28 projects that take a comprehensive and integrated approach to address maternal, newborn, and child health, and support Canada’s commitment of reducing mortality rates in developing countries until 2015.
The MIPP call for proposals, which was initiated as part of Canada’s contribution to the 2010 G-8 Muskoka Initiative, was open to Canadian organizations with at least three years' experience managing and delivering maternal and child health initiatives in developing countries. Sixty applications from across Canada and from a broad range of Canadian organizations were received.
Listed below are the selected Canadian organizations and the projects they will be undertaking:
Adventist Development and Relief Agency Canada
Project title: Securing Mothers’ and Infants’ Lives with Equity (SMILE)
Country: Cambodia
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,999,500
The SMILE project will contribute to achieving Cambodia’s Millennium Development Goals of improving maternal, newborn and child health by addressing the health needs of more than 70,000 underserved women and children in the province of Preah Vihear.
Aga Khan Foundation Canada
Project title: Mother Care and Child Survival in Underserved Regions of Mali, Mozambique and Pakistan
Countries: Mali, Mozambique and Pakistan
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $8,353,802
The project’s primary objectives are to improve maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition practices and strengthen health systems at village and district-level institutions in the Mopti region of Mali, the province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique and the provinces of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. Direct beneficiaries include 363,709 women; 196,857 children; 774 provincial and district health management staff; 274 health facility workers and nurses; 2,686 community health workers, midwives and traditional birth attendants; and 55,535 community health and nutrition committee members.
Aide médicale internationale à l’enfance
Project title: Integrated Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Program in Burundi
Country: Burundi
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $502,421
This project aims to improve the comprehensive provision of services to HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women, including safe pregnancies for HIV-positive pregnant women and preventing the transmission of HIV from breastfeeding women to their children. The project will also raise people’s awareness of the importance of preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. More than 150 HIV-positive pregnant or breastfeeding women and 150 infants will benefit from these program services.
The African Medical and Research Foundation Canada
Project title: Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Pastoralist and Semi-Pastoralist Communities of the Omo Valley
Country: Ethiopia
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $2,247,657
In Ethiopia, some 18,000 pregnant women will benefit from strengthened peripheral health systems, improved access to maternal health services and an increased proportion of health facilities providing comprehensive health care, including laboratory services and treatment of major communicable diseases. As well, more than 45,000 children under the age of five will receive more nutritious food and essential vaccinations.
Canadian Network for International Surgery
Project title: Safer Obstetrics in Rural Tanzania (Mbeya, Tanga, Moshi, and Mwanza)
Country: Tanzania
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,887,543
More than 1,000 non-physician clinicians—clinical officers, assistant medical officers and midwives—will be trained to deliver basic medical care, identify patients who require referral, and assure that their transfer is safe. Assistant medical officers will learn and practice Caesarean sections and, together with midwives, will also be taught emergency obstetrical care.
Canadian Red Cross
Project title: Improving Community Health in Mali
Country: Mali
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $ 2,624,963
The Croix-Rouge malienne and Canadian Red Cross will support the Mali Ministry of Health to expand its integrated community case management of childhood illnesses initiative in Sikasso and Koulikoro. The program will reach 875,000 beneficiaries, including 150,000 children under the age of five, and will ensure that access to life-saving health services that address critical childhood illnesses, such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia, is improved and that use of health services is increased.
CARE Canada
Project title: Improved Health and Nutrition in Africa
Countries: Ethiopia, Zimbabwe
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $3,809,524
More than 4,500 pregnant and lactating mothers and more than 9,000 children under the age of five will benefit from having better nutrition as well as improved access to health services and antenatal clinic visits.
Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology
Project title: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Health
Countries: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Laos, Nepal, Zambia
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $5,964,042
Through this project, more than 354,000 people, 79 percent women and children, in eight countries will have access to improved drinking water and adequate sanitation, improved hygiene with increased awareness, and, ultimately, improved maternal and child health.
CHF (formerly Canadian Hunger Foundation)
Project title: Maternal and Child Health Enhancement Program in South Sudan
Country: South Sudan
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $3,749,993
Approximately 35,000 beneficiaries, including mothers, pregnant women and children in three areas of South Sudan (Juaibor, Keew and Mathiang) will benefit from improved nutrition and food security, strengthened local health systems in maternal, newborn and child health, and enhanced prevention of diseases that affect mothers and children.
Christian Children’s Fund of Canada
Project title: IMPACT: Improving Maternal and Child Health: Partnership and Action for Community Transformation
Country: Ethiopia
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,969,741
More than 68,000 mothers and women of reproductive age, in addition to 11,000 infants and 37,000 children under the age of five, will benefit from increased use of quality maternal, newborn and child health services, improved home-based management of childhood illness, reduction of common diseases, and increased healthy child-feeding practices among mothers.
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Project title: CRWRC Community-Based MNCH Project
Countries: Bangladesh, Malawi
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $694,381
This project, based in the subdistrict of Dimlain and the district of Nilphamari in Bangladesh, and in the districts of Lilongwe and Ntchisi in Malawi, will help 150,000 mothers and their children have enhanced access to programs and services for community-based integrated management of childhood illness, nutrition, and malaria control and prevention.
Ghana Rural Integrated Development
Project title: Leyaata Project
Country: Ghana
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $633,464
Malaria is the leading cause of death in north Kintampo and south Bole districts of Ghana, with the majority of malaria-related deaths occurring in children under the age of five. The Leyaata (Rescue Us) project aims to reduce maternal, infant and child mortality in 50 marginalized villages in these areas. Approximately 10,000 citizens will have improved access to home-based neonatal care and to malaria prevention and treatment approaches.
HealthBridge Foundation of Canada
Project title: Pakur Mother and Child Survival Project
Country: India
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $861,042
This project in the Pakur district of the state of Jharkhand will improve access and utilization of maternal, newborn and child health services. More than 1,100 health workers and 600 village health and sanitation committees will be trained to provide counselling for safe pregnancy and delivery and good nutrition advice for mothers and children. In addition, more than 280,000 women of reproductive age and their husbands and more than 56,000 pregnant and lactating mothers and their husbands will benefit from the implementation of more effective and gender-sensitive interventions and services related to maternal, newborn and child health.
HOPE International Development Agency
Project title: Community-Led Health, Bangladesh
Country: Bangladesh
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $548,197
This project addresses gaps in health services for poor families, especially women, children, adolescents and newborns, in central Bangladesh and along the southern coast. Some 6,000 women, 3,000 men, and 4,500 adolescents, children, and infants will benefit from increased knowledge of how to prevent and treat health problems.
International Child Care Canada
Project title: Improving Maternal/Child Health in Haiti
Country: Haiti
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $765,060
This project aims to reduce morbidity and mortality in mothers, newborns and children under the age of five in Haiti’s northern communes of Grande Rivière du Nord and Bahon. Approximately 12,000 families will benefit from nutrition demonstrations and more than 1,600 women will have increased access to prenatal and postnatal visits.
International Development and Relief Foundation
Project title: Maternal and Child HIV/AIDS Health Care and Promotion
Countries: Zambia and Zimbabwe
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $450,000
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is a critical priority in Zambia and Zimbabwe where HIV/AIDS prevalence is high. Through community-based health education, this project will strengthen systems for maternal and child health related to HIV/AIDS with a specific focus on prevention of mother-to-child transmission; develop food programs for families affected by HIV/AIDS; and foster community mobilization and education in the context of HIV/AIDS.
Oxfam–Québec
Project title: Support for Safe Maternal and Child Health Care in the Ituri Administrative District of Eastern Province
Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2013; $2,568,900
Many years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo destabilized the health care system, and have led to very high maternal and infant mortality rates, and displaced persons. The project aims to address high maternal and infant mortality rates by strengthening health services in two health districts through the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and case management of HIV/AIDS in children. More than 48,000 pregnant women will be informed and referred to health care facilities that offer maternal and child care.
Plan Canada
Project title: Scaling up Cost-Effective Community-Based Health Interventions to Save Mothers, Newborns and Children
Countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Zimbabwe
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $19,429,619
Reaching more than 1.85 million people in 26 districts and subdistricts of Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Zimbabwe, the project will improve the quality of community outreach and facility-based maternal, newborn and child services while building capacity of communities, especially that of women, to adopt health-seeking behaviours and participate in local health care management.
Presbyterian World Service and Development
Project title: Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Program 2011–2014
Countries: Afghanistan, Malawi
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,519,610
In Afghanistan, this project will train birth attendants, improve health facilities, and benefit 19,000 women by helping to change community attitudes toward maternal health services, thus improving women’s health status and lowering the maternal death rate.
In Malawi, maternal and neonatal deaths will be reduced by lowering fertility rates, increasing access to obstetric services through empowering women and communities in their referral and communications systems, and improving health-seeking behaviour. Up to 17,000 children will have access to and benefit from improved health care services at the local level.
Primate's World Relief and Development Fund
Project title: Increased Maternal and Child Health Access
Country: Bangladesh
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $452,147
Through this project, 63,000 mothers and 94,500 children under the age of five in the 130 targeted villages in Bangladesh will have regular, on-site access to basic health care, including prenatal and postnatal care and trained midwives.
Queen’s University
Project title: Inter-Professional Project on Disability, Maternal and Child Health
Country: Bangladesh
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,318,325
The project aims to strengthen health systems by increasing access to and use of maternal and child health and disability services and contribute to the reduction in mortality and disability rates. Queen’s University, with local partners, will provide training, education, policy advice and coordination, reaching over a thousand inter-professional maternal and child health and disability workers, community health workers, policy makers and 12,000 community members.
Save the Children Canada
Project title: Improving Community Health
Countries: Mali, Pakistan
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $4,944,155
In Mali, respiratory infections, diarrhea and malaria account for 54 percent of child mortality. In Pakistan, pneumonia and diarrhea account for 25 percent of child mortality. The project will work with the ministries of health of both countries to improve the health and nutrition status of an estimated 330,000 children under the age of five, and 161,000 women of reproductive age.
University of British Columbia
Project title: Interrupting Pathways to Maternal, Newborn and Early Childhood Sepsis Initiative
Country: Bangladesh
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $2,795,738
The objective of this project is to improve the survival rate of more than 53,000 beneficiaries, including mothers, newborns and children under the age of five, through the prevention of sepsis, a life-threatening form of infection in which the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria. Sixty midwives and birth attendants, 45 nurses and doctors, 100 primary health care providers and 12 paramedics will be trained to detect, refer and treat sepsis.
University of Calgary
Project title: Healthy Child Uganda (HCU): Scaling Up Comprehensive MNCH Programming to Create a Model District in Bushenyi, Uganda
Country: Uganda
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $3,491,174
More than 30 health centres in Bushenyi will provide mothers and children with improved access to basic maternal, newborn and child health services. In addition, 120 health centre staff will be trained in preventative and critical care for maternal, newborn and child health, and more than 2,500 volunteer community health workers will provide maternal, newborn and child health promotion and critical care to Bushenyi families in Uganda.
University of Western Ontario
Project title: Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Rwanda
Country: Rwanda
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,824,784
This project will provide Rwandan mothers, newborns and children under the age of five with access to enhanced maternal, newborn and child health care in health facilities across the country. The project aims to strengthen and develop midwifery and pediatric nursing programs, develop educational capacity to deliver continuing professional development and provide an enabling environment for policy development.
University of Manitoba
Project title: Meeting Critical Health Care and Nutritional Needs in Kenya
Country: Kenya
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $1,671,983
Taita Taveta County, in eastern Kenya, will benefit from 3,000 pregnant women and their families receiving education in perinatal and infant nutrition, community workers being trained to provide maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition services, and health workers being trained in delivering critical maternal, newborn and child health services.
World University Service of Canada
Project title: Improving Maternal and Child Health in Burkina Faso
Country: Burkina Faso
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $2,062,499
In four of Burkina Faso’s health districts, 125,000 pregnant women and mothers and 80,000 newborns will benefit from improved health systems for maternal, newborn and child health, upgraded knowledge and skills of health staff in management and health care, as well as increased access to nutritious and healthful food.
World Vision Canada
Project title: Supporting Systems to Achieve Improved Nutrition, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (SUSTAIN-MNCH)
Country: Tanzania
Project duration and funding amount: 2011-2014; $3,098,402
In Tanzania, births, postnatal complications and underlying conditions such as anaemia and malnutrition are major causes of maternal mortality. In infants and children, infections and malnutrition are major causes of death. The project aims to address these causes by improving the use of community health services, enhancing household nutrition practices, and improving utilization of disease prevention and treatment measures with a particular focus on malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.
For more information, please visit the Canadian International Development Agency’s website.
