Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) Zambia Field Support Activity
Momentum Country and Global Leadership is a 3years USAID funded project which aims to holistically improve family planning and maternal and child health in partner countries around the world. The project focuses on technical and capacity development assistance (TCDA) to ministries of health and other country partners to improve outcomes in improving health system performance and deliver high quality, accessible reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH).
The objectives
The overarching goal of the USAID MCGL Zambia Field Support Activity is to improve Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent health services in Zambia’s Northern and Central provinces:
- Increase availability of and access to quality Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) services;
- Increase demand and uptake of RMNCAH services; and
- Strengthen health systems at national and sub-national levels for effective RMNCAH service delivery.
MCGL’s global approach moves away from comprehensive direct service delivery assistance to strengthening partnerships with national and county governments while taking cognizance of locally led development. MCGL seeks to apply a systems thinking approach to capacity development for Ministry of Health (MOH) counterparts and local entities by working side by side through coaching, mentoring, mutual accountability, and co-investment. The MCGL consortium partnership in Zambia comprises eight organizations in total, all of which will provide TCDA while five (including Jhpiego) will contribute in-country staff to provide more direct leadership to components of the work. As lead partner on Youth and Gender, a cross-cutting technical area, CRZ will support MCGL’s activities in incorporating youth and gender sensitive approaches across the RMNCAH continuum of care to support MCGL’s achievement of outcomes across all objectives.
The work includes but not limited to the following activities:
- Supporting an adolescent responsive health system for MOH
- Peer-led community-based distribution of family planning commodities, improvement of hygiene practices, school sensitization activities, and mobile outreach events.
- Integrating of gender-sensitive and where possible, gender-transformative approaches into planning, implementation, and monitoring.
- Integrating of gender into clinical mentorship, community mentorship, and QA/QI systems
- Expansion of the adolescent health toolkit for health providers and advocates
- Building on lessons learned from increasing youth participation in Technical Working Groups (TWG’s), develop strategies for increased youth and female participation in community health structures to strengthen community and leadership structures.