Ideas At The London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine

Maternal and newborn health in rural Ethiopia, Nigeria and India have improved, but gaps still remain. “Our findings have a both optimistic and pessimistic interpretation, in that families from all socioeconomic status groups benefited, but inequities have also persisted,” writes Dr. Tanya Marchant with coauthors. Underlying inequities in these rural settings mean that more work is needed to reach the poorest families who bear the greatest burden of maternal and newborn mortality. Read the latest publication from IDEAS researchers recently published in CMAJ https://bit.ly/332ldyw Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Stay tuned! ‼️The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is co-sponsor for a Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, Adolescent and Nutrition Conference taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the 19th and 20th of August. As part of this conference IDEAS will be presenting findings from the final evaluation of the Community Based Newborn Care (CBNC) programme. This programme, launched in 2013 by the Ethiopian Government, has nine components, including the innovative step of antibiotics provision by community health workers for young infants with very severe diseases. Dr Bilal Avan, Dr Della Berhanu and Professor Joanna Schellenberg will be part of a panel to discuss findings and recommendations for the future of the programme in Ethiopia.

Health Extension Workers in #Ethiopia are the first port of call for sick children an are tasked with diagnosing the illness a child might be suffering from. Little is know however of how accurate this cadre assess and classify common diseases. This paper published by Theodros Getachew et al in Acta Paediatrica reveals findings from a study which included a survey and observations of the work of Health Extension Workers (HEW) to better understand their capacity to correctly d...iagnose common childhood illnesses.
Results show that a significant number of sick children were not correctly diagnosed, which could lead to absent or incorrect treatment.
Efforts are needed to improve the quality of HEWs’ diagnostic ability for childhood illnesses and their adherence to the guidelines for the examination, classification and treatment of childhood illnesses. Gates Foundation https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/resea…/centres- projects-groups/dagu…
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Village Health Worker Elizabeth Gidado speaks to new mother Yarima about important care for herself and her baby. Our work at IDEAS includes research into the sustainability of the Village Health Worker scheme in Gombe State, Nigeria. https://bit.ly/2LvIuET

The IDEAS team is currently exploring opportunities to translate findings from a pilot phase of the Data Informed Platform for Health (DIPH) carried out in West Bengal to Ethiopia.

The IDEAS team has been looking at the sustainability of the Village Health Worker Scheme in Gombe state, #Nigeria and our latest brief summarizes key recommendations for current and potential future implementers. These include key areas such as: selection, supervision and stipend, but also operational concerns, community involvement and strategic matters. Read more at https://bit.ly/2LvIuET Gates Foundation Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria

Don't have a lot of time, but want to know more about our work in Gombe state, #Nigeria on the use of #DHIS2 for monitoring #maternal and #newborn health? Listen in to find out what local and global impact the research of our IDEAS team is having. https://bit.ly/2DCJAc7 Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria Bill & Melinda Gates-Foundation

Quality routine health data provide useful information for projects and programmes to identify gaps and take action to make sure the best possible #MNCH care is provided to women and newborns. Under the leadership of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency and in collaboration with their implementing partners IDEAS supported learning workshops with local government area actors to improve the quality of facility-based routine data. Take a look at this report to find out more. https://bit.ly/2Fen9uu Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria

At IDEAS we have partnered with the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Society for Family Health, Nigeria, Pact West Africa, Mamaye Nigeria and Champions for Change over the past three years to run data-driven learning workshops. Want to know more how these workshops worked to support #MNCH interventions in the State and led to better collaboration among all partners? Check out our latest blog series https://ideas.lshtm.ac.uk/blog/

Wishing everyone a happy #InternationalWomensDay 2019!✊ At IDEAS we aim to better understand what works, why and how in ensuring women and their babies lead healthy lives and achieve their potential. We want to celebrate all who dedicate themselves to improving the health and lives of people worldwide. Gates Foundation Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria

Its almost weekend, but before we go just a quick reminder to take a look at our current #vacancy. We are recruiting a research assistant to join our team in #Ethiopia and work on data for decision-making. Just 5 days to go until the deadline. https://bit.ly/2EFNHo4

Do you want to join the IDEAS team? Interested in working in Ethiopia, coordinating action research on a district-level data-sharing, evidence-based decision-making, planning and resource allocation initiative? You will need a Master's degree in public health or similar and experience working with Ethiopian health systems plus project management and research skills. Apply now for the Research Assistant role https://jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref =ITD-DCD-2019-02

Check out the blog written by IDEAS team member for the Community Health Worker hub. Community involvement is vital for making progress towards universal coverage of health services for mothers and newborns. Yet communities cannot work in a vacuum if universal coverage is to be achieved. In the Nigerian context, state government engagement is also important to ensure community health services are embedded in the health system and in the state’s health budget. This engagement creates an enabling environment for scale-up and sustainability. These are the interim conclusions of two studies conducted under the IDEAS project[ii], one quantitative and one qualitative, that evaluated a Village Health Worker scheme in Gombe State, northeast Nigeria.https://bit.ly/2G4eo75 CHW Central

Good quality routine facility-based data can contribute to reliable estimates showing whether communities are accessing and receiving needed services. A case study from #Nigeria shows the high potential for effective monitoring of #MNCH through #DHIS2 if more is done to maximize reporting of existing routine facility-based #data.https://bit.ly/2DCJAc7 Society for Family Health, Nigeria pact Nigeria Mamaye Nigeria

Some impressions from the 6th data driven learning workshop hosted by the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency. IDEAS and partner organisations Society for Family Health, Nigeria, pact Nigeria and Mamaye Nigeria came together in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss progress made towards improved maternal and newborn health in Gombe State. Gates Foundation

"I was nervous before conducting the interviews because I knew the topic had the potential to be controversial. Despite aiming to be very careful with the way I phrased my questions, I was essentially asking whether providers endangered women’s health by performing C-sections for financial gain." Check out the latest IDEAS blog to read about Alison Peel's experience of working in Delhi, India to find out why C-section rates are much higher in private health facilities than in public ones. https://bit.ly/2EjR0le