Mali
In Mali, MOMENTUM partners with the private sector and local organizations—including those in fragile settings—to help women, children, and communities access the essential health products and services they need.
MOMENTUM partners with local Malian organizations to help improve essential health services for women and children, especially those with limited access to health care services due to conflict and natural disasters in the northern regions of Gao and Timbuktu. We also partner with health systems to provide safe obstetric and gynecological surgeries nationally and in Mali’s Sikasso and Koulikoro regions. Finally, we work with private providers in the Bamako, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Sikasso, and Segou regions to improve the coverage and quality of private health services.
Helping Malian Women Access Safe Surgeries
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics partners with a broad group of Malian institutions in Koulikoro and Sikasso to make childbirth safer for women. Our partners include civil society groups, faith-based and community-based organizations, private sector organizations, and professional associations, such as the Société d’Anesthésie Réanimation et Médecine d’Urgence (SARMU Mali). Together, we help surgical teams safely offer care during the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen referral networks for obstetric and fistula-related care. An obstetric fistula is a serious and often tragic complication of childbirth that occurs when obstructed labor leaves a hole in the birth canal; seven out of every 10,000 women of reproductive age in Mali have had an obstetric fistula.1 We work with partners to help identify women with fistula and connect them with high-quality surgical care and treatment services. We partner with local organizations to update, adopt, and disseminate evidence-based guidelines that make it safer for women to give birth and raise awareness among health district teams on the impact on mothers and babies if emergency obstetric treatment is delayed.
Learn more about MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics’ work to end obstetric fistula and connect screening for gender-based violence with fistula care.
Increasing Access to Family Planning for All
In 2018, only 16 percent of married Malian women between the ages of 15 and 49 years used a modern method of contraception.2 The Malian government has set an ambitious goal to significantly increase the use of modern contraceptives to 40% by 2030.3
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics works with health providers in Koulikoro and Sikasso—with an emphasis on those in Mali’s rapidly growing private health sector—to help individuals and couples access the information and services they need to make voluntary and informed decisions about family planning.
As part of this effort, we help enhance Malian private providers’ ability to insert and remove long-acting methods of reversible contraception, such as contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices, and perform tubal ligations and vasectomies. We also work with private sector pharmacies and drugstores to help them keep an adequate stock of family planning and reproductive health supplies and to counsel their clients on the contraceptive method that best fits their needs, thus expanding access to high-quality family planning services.
Reaching Every Malian Mother and Child with Essential Health Care
Mali has one of the highest maternal and child death rates in sub-Saharan Africa.4 To address these high rates, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience works to improve access to, quality of, and demand for essential health care services for women and children at every stage of life. Our partnership helps create short, targeted training for health workers at frequent intervals and provides regular opportunities for them to practice their clinical skills. We also work with local health systems managers to help them more efficiently govern health services and provide proper oversight.
Nutrition, a critical component of child survival, is also part of MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience’s maternal and child health programs in Mali. We assess local health programs to determine how best to deliver nutrition services for mothers and children, such as monitoring child growth, supplementing folic acid, and promoting diverse diets.
Strengthening Mali’s Routine Immunization Services
In Mali, logistical barriers and safety concerns make it difficult to reach every child with the vaccinations they need. We provide technical assistance to our partners in Mali to reduce the number of under-immunized and “zero-dose” children—those who have not received even a single dose of the vaccines that prevent diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis—through strengthening routine immunization services.
To reach children in fragile contexts with low immunization coverage, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience is adapting the World Health Organization’s Reaching Every District/Reaching Every Child approach to build the capacity of local health systems to address common obstacles to immunization. We also work with partners to implement known effective solutions to increase vaccination coverage. These solutions include online training modules to help health workers identify missed vaccination opportunities and finding ways to integrate immunization within humanitarian efforts.
Read about MOMENTUM’s commitment to immunizing zero-dose children.
Creating a Resilient Health System
Climate change, conflict, and political and economic instability have made it difficult for some Malians to access and use health care. In the northern regions of Gao and Timbuktu, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience partners with health system actors to prepare and respond to these challenges. We work with individuals, households, communities, and the health system overall to bolster their capacities to recover from shocks and stresses that affect health. For instance, we organize workshops and provide technical assistance to local governments, health facilities, and community members to create emergency preparedness action plans for health centers.
Read more about MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience’s work in northern Mali.
Improving Quality of Care in the Private Health Sector
In Mali, over 60 percent of all health visits occur at a private facility,5 and one-fifth of all voluntary family planning users get their method from a private source.6 However, the quality of care, data collection and use, available health products, and financing opportunities across these private facilities vary widely. MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery works with private facilities in Mali’s Bamako, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Sikasso, and Segou regions to improve the coverage and quality of their health services and provides tools and resources to prioritize clients’ preferences and experiences.
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics also collaborates with private partners to strengthen the use and availability of health data in Mali, especially for budgeting, planning, and monitoring health care quality.
MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (MOHSA): General Directorate of Public Health and Hygiene (DGSHP), Regional Directorate of Health (DRS) for Gao and Timbuktu; Association Malienne pour la Survie au Sahel (AMSS); Association Groupe de Reflexion pour les Initiatives de Developpement (GRIDev); Center for Study and Research on Population and Health Information (CERIPS); Bureau d’Etudes de Formation de Consultation et d’Appui Conseil (BEFCAC); Action Contre le Faim (ACF); IntraHealth; Médecins du Monde (MdM); Population Services International (PSI) Mali; Save the Children; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery: PSI Mali; Association des Sages Femmes du Mali (ASFM); Reseau des Jeunes Ambassadeurs du Mali (RJAM); Alliance du Secteur Privé
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics: IntraHealth, SARMU Mali, Viamo
Interested in partnering with us or learning more about our work in Mali? Contact us here or check out our regional reference brief.
Learn more about USAID’s programs in Mali.
References
- Maheu-Giroux, Mathieu et al. 2015. “Prevalence of symptoms of vaginal fistula in 19 sub-Saharan Africa countries: a meta-analysis of national household survey data.” The Lancet Global Health 3(5): e271-e278.
- Institut National de la Statistique (INSTAT) and ICF. 2019. 2018 Mali Demographic and Health Survey Key Findings. Rockville, Maryland, USA. INSTAT and ICF.
- République du Mali. Les engagements du Mali pour la planification familiale. Ouagadougou and Washington, DC: Ouagadougou Partnership and Family Planning 2030. https://fp2030.org/sites/default/files/Mali-Commitment%201-pager.pdf
- INSTAT and CPS/SS-DS-PF. Mali Demographic and Health Survey 2018.
- Health Finance & Governance Project. Mali Private Health Sector Assessment. December 2017. https://www.hfgproject.org/mali-private-health-sector-assessment/
- INSTAT and CPS/SS-DS-PF. Mali Demographic and Health Survey 2018.
Last updated September 2022.