Stillbirth rates in Afghanistan have declined little in the past decade with no data available on key risk factors. Health care utilisation and maternal complications are important factors influencing pregnancy outcomes but rarely captured for stillbirth in national surveys from low‐ and middle‐income countries. The 2010 Afghanistan Mortality Survey (AMS) is one of few surveys with this information. We used data from the 2010 AMS that included a full pregnancy history and verbal autopsy. Our sample included the most recent live birth or stillbirth of 13 834 women aged 12‐49 years in the three years preceding the survey. The risk of stillbirth was increased among women in the Central Highlands and of Nuristani ethnicity. Women who did not receive antenatal care had three times increased risk of stillbirth, while high‐quality antenatal care was important for reducing the risk of intrapartum stillbirth. Bleeding, infection, headache, and reduced fetal movements were antenatal complications strongly associated with stillbirth. Reduced fetal movements in the delivery period increased stillbirth risk by almost seven. Facility births had a higher risk of stillbirths overall, but not for intrapartum stillbirths. Targeted interventions are needed to improve access and utilisation of services for high‐risk groups. Early detection of complications through improved quality of antenatal and obstetric care is imperative. We demonstrate the potential of household surveys to provide country‐specific evidence on stillbirth risk factors for LMICs where data are lacking.

The aim of this study was to assess the uptake and determinants of HIV testing among men in Malawi. Secondary data analysis was conducted on cross–sectional household data for 7,478 men aged 15 to 54 years drawn from the 2015–16 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey. Overall, 69.9% of the participants had ever been tested for HIV. The results indicate that age, region of residence, marital status, coverage by health insurance, education and age at first sexual debut are significant predictors of HIV testing among men in Malawi. The findings suggest that HIV testing services and programmes need to target younger unmarried men aged 15–19 and men with low level or no education and expand HIV testing services to the central and southern regions of Malawi. Targeting the undiagnosed men living with HIV in a timely manner is a crucial and necessary step not only for achieving the UNAIDS 90–90–90 targets but for individuals to benefit from antiretroviral treatment and to sustainably reduce population–level HIV transmission.

Managed entry agreements (MEAs)—a type of formal institutional arrangement between pharmaceutical companies and payers for sharing the risk with respect to the introduction of new pharmaceutical technologies—may expand access to new pharmaceutical technologies for non-communicable diseases. Although common in high-income countries (HICs), there is limited evidence of their use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This article aims to document international experiences of countries implementing MEAs and potential barriers and facilitators for their use in LMICs. We reviewed published literature sources on MEAs over the past 10 years considering peer-reviewed publications and gray literature data. While the use of MEAs in LMICs is very limited, this could be the result of limited empirical evidence on its use and possibly due to the use of a different taxonomy for describing MEAs in these settings. Since there is limited evidence on their use in LMICs, the identified cases of implementation in HICs may serve to inform the interest on MEAs in resource limited settings. Therefore, further research in this field especially in the context of LMICs may be of value for the global community as all countries are embarking into fairer and sustainable Universal Health Coverage.

Persistent dyslipidemia in children is associated with risks of cardiovascular accidents and poor combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) outcome. We report on the first evaluation of prevalence and associations with dyslipidemia due to HIV and cART among HIV-infected Ethiopian children. High prevalence of cART-associated dyslipidemia, particularly low HDLc and hypertriglyceridemia, was observed among treatment-experienced HIV-infected children. The findings underscore the need for regular follow-up of children on cART for lipid abnormalities.

he Health Care Provider Performance Review (HCPPR) is a comprehensive systematic review of the effectiveness and cost of strategies to improve HCP performance in low- and middle-income countries. We present the HCPPR’s methods, describe methodological and contextual attributes of included studies, and examine time trends of study attributes. We screened 105,299 citations and included 824 reports from 499 studies of 161 intervention strategies. Most strategies had multiple components and were tested by only one study each. Studies were from 79 countries and had diverse methodologies, settings, HCP types, work environments, and health conditions. Training, supervision, and patient and community supports were the most commonly evaluated strategy components. Studies have reported on the efficacy of many strategies to improve HCP performance in LMICs. However, most studies have important methodological limitations.

This study used a mixed methods evaluation to determine the effect of a targeted health insurance scheme on access to affordable quality maternal and child care, and assess implementation fidelity and how this affected programme outcomes. A total of 90 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and five focus group discussions were conducted among respondents from management, facility and community. The scheme achieved high coverage among the target population and reduced the amount paid for antenatal and delivery care; however, there was no effect on service coverage and limited effects on quality of care. Better communication of programme benefits is needed to enhance effects together with integration of such schemes within existing purchasing mechanisms and in financially decentralised health systems.

We investigated factors associated with unintended index pregnancy, unmet contraceptive need, future pregnancy intention and current contraceptive use among Malawian women living with HIV in the Option B+ era. Women who tested HIV positive at 4–26 weeks postpartum were enrolled into a cross-sectional study at high-volume under-5 clinics.  We enrolled 578 HIV-positive women between May 2015-May 2016; median maternal age was 28 years (y), median parity was 3 deliveries, and median infant age was 7 weeks. Overall, 41.8% women reported unintended index pregnancy, of whom 35.0% reported unmet contraceptive need and 65.0% contraceptive failure. High prevalence of unintended index pregnancy and unmet contraceptive need among HIV-positive women highlight the need for improved access to contraceptives. To help achieve reproductive goals and elimination of MTCT of HIV, integration of family planning into HIV care should be strengthened to ensure women have timely access to a wide range of family planning methods with low failure risk.

Annex A_Vendor Response Format

Annex C Budget Narrative Template