Global Presence

Management Sciences for Health, together with its partners International Medical Corps and Save the Children/USA, are helping to rebuild Angola's public health system and participate in the transition from emergency relief, to a sustainable, long-term health system through the U.S. Agency for International Development's Maternal Health Care Program in Luanda, Angola.

After more than a quarter century of civil war, Angola's health system faces numerous challenges. The Maternal Health Care Program work focuses on the city of Luanda to develop the capacity to operate and maintain the health system, encourage community participation, and improve the quality of maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS services. The program will also increase the use of updated national standards and guidelines, and improve the flow of basic health information to mothers and families.

The objectives to be met by the end of the project are to make services more accessible, of better quality (in compliance with national standards and guidelines), and in higher demand. Specific goals are:

• reduced maternal, child, and infant morbidity and mortality in the targeted area;
• community ownership and management of health care service delivery;
• increased use of MCH (including safe motherhood and child survival services), in targeted communities, including:
  • tetanus toxoid for women of child-bearing age
  • child spacing and modern family planning
  • treatment of iron deficiency anemia
  • prophylactic malaria treatment for pregnant women and presumptive treatment for children with fever
  • prenatal and postnatal services
  • distribution of high-dose vitamin A to infants
  • interventions for acute respiratory infection and diarrhea;
• improved prevention and treatment of STIs and HIV infections (condom promotion, medical treatment of STIs, voluntary counseling and testing, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission) in targeted communities and health facilities.

MSH will also assist the Ministry of Health to further the implementation of a strategy known as IMCI (the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) for reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with the major causes of childhood illness. In Angola, approximately one in five children die before reaching the age of five and more than 40 percent of children are malnourished, according to recent figures from the World Bank.

The Maternal and Child Health Program will assess the organization of services and quality of care in the target area and use the information gathered to identify ways to strengthen health facilities to improve service delivery. In addition, through community-based initiatives, the project will train mothers in hygiene and sanitation and the prevention of diarrheal diseases, and will establish points in the community where mothers will receive training to care for sick children. The program will pay special attention to growth monitoring and nutrition, since stunting and underweight are a significant problem in the under-five population in Luanda.