Publication Date April 1, 2024 Program & Technical Resources

Recommendations for Governments To Maintain Continuous Family Planning Services During Shocks and Stressors

People need continuous access to family planning (FP) services as an essential component of SRH care to prevent unintended pregnancy. As stewards of their national health programs, governments must lead the way on advancing policies, programs, and financing that build resilient health systems and enable continuous access to health services across shocks and stressors. This brief provides recommendations for governments to improve preparedness to provide continuous FP services, build resilient health systems that can withstand and adapt to crises, and meet FP needs during crises and stable times alike. This brief is co-branded with the Women's Refugee Commission, IAWG, FP2030, USAID, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience, and PROPEL Adapt.

Publication Date April 1, 2024 Research & Evidence

Current Approaches to Following Up Women and Newborns After Discharge from Childbirth Facilities: A Scoping Review

The postpartum period is critical for the health and well-being of women and newborns, but there is limited research on the most effective methods of post-childbirth follow-up. This scoping review synthesizes evidence from high-, middle-, and low-income countries on approaches to following up individuals after discharge from childbirth facilities. The scoping review identified multiple follow-up methods after discharge, ranging from home visits to self-administered electronic questionnaires. The studies demonstrated that post-discharge follow-up of women and newborns was feasible, well received, and important for identifying postpartum illness or complications that would otherwise be missed.

Publication Date April 1, 2024 Research & Evidence

Rapid Assessment of Data Systems for COVID-19 Vaccination in the WHO African Region

The MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity project collaborated with WHO to develop an article discussing a study done by WHO AFRO between May and July 2022 to identify gaps in COVID-19 vaccine data management in countries in the African region. Published in the Epidemiology and Infection journal by Cambridge University Press this article summarizes the key findings of the assessment and discusses its implications for routine immunization.

Publication Date April 1, 2024 Research & Evidence

Beyond Constructs and Principles: Addressing Gender-Related Barriers to High, Equitable Immunization Coverage

This article was published in the Frontiers in Global Women's Health journal in April 2023. The article discusses how USAID's MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity project recognized the need to mainstream gender into its global and country level work, incorporating gender considerations into all phases of the program cycle, from assessment to activity design, strategic communications, monitoring, evaluation, and continuous learning. The authors describe approaches the project has applied to build capacity of its own global and country level staff to both recognize the gender dimensions inherent in common obstacles to immunization and ways to address them.

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Research & Evidence

Strategies for Deploying Pediatric Death Audit to Improve Quality of Care

Pediatric death audits are used to improve health care quality and outcomes for children. In this report, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership examined the use of death audits in Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia. These experiences suggested both challenges in the use of death audits for improving pediatric quality care as well as options to begin developing effective systems that incorporate audits, even in low-resource settings.

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Program & Technical Resources

Health in Fragile Settings: A Health-Sensitive Conceptual Model of Fragility

This brief presents a health-sensitive conceptual model and typology of fragility, with the aim of improving MOMENTUM’s understanding of fragility and how it impacts health and, in turn, strengthens health programming. The conceptual model and typology proposed here are intended as internal guidance for USAID and USAID partnerships/projects and are designed to inform fragility assessments and contextual analysis as well as monitoring, evaluation, & learning approaches, conflict sensitivity, and exit strategies.

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Program & Technical Resources

Reaching Zero-Dose and Under-Immunized Children in Fragile Settings

This technical brief outlines the rationale and approach that MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience is taking with partner countries to accelerate their post-pandemic immunization catch-up and recovery and build the resilience of their national immunization programs. It also provides links to dozens of relevant resources. 

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Webinars

Implementation Considerations of New WHO Recommendations for Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH)

On 6 March 2024, the Postpartum Hemorhage (PPH) Community of Practice hosted a webinar with the WHO to share the latest recommendations, released December 2023, on the assessment of postpartum blood loss and use of a treatment bundle for PPH. Experts working to implement these guidelines joined the webinar to share their implementation challenges and solutions.

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Program & Technical Resources

Furthering a Movement: The Perinatal Mental Health Community of Practice

The Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) Community of Practice (CoP) is a global collaborative platform for experts and practitioners working in maternal and newborn health, mental health, and related fields. As an inclusive environment for members to collaborate, the PMH CoP will connect individuals interested in PMH, empower them to collaborate to address the challenges and questions surrounding global PMH, and disseminate the latest information about PMH. This briefer shares more about the purpose and structure of the CoP as well as how to join this exciting community. The PMH CoP is supported by MOMENTUM Country and Global leadership.

Publication Date March 1, 2024 Training & Guidance

Gender and Immunization: Opportunities for Action

The global immunization community has only recently recognized that gender-related barriers lie on a critical pathway to achieving high and equitable vaccination coverage.¹ As part of its commitment to advancing this knowledge base, in the summer of 2022, MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity developed a four-session month long course entitled “Gender and Immunization: Opportunities for Action.” The overall goal of the course was to provide national and sub-national participants from low-and middle-income countries with the knowledge, tools, skills, capacity, and confidence to reduce gender barriers to immunization and document their efforts to advance this nascent and critical technical area. The course was held on the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Boost learning platform. The following gender course materials are meant to serve as a practical reference to help inform and guide the work of immunization professionals in LMICs, global health students, program implementers, and policy makers interested in gender mainstreaming in immunization.