Each year, an estimated 2,300 Mozambican women suffer from new cases of obstetric fistula—a maternal injury that occurs when obstructed labor or a surgical error leaves a hole in the birth canal, causing chronic leakage of urine or feces.¹ Access to fistula repair services is limited, and women living with fistula often experience stigma, abuse, and violence because of their condition. MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics collaborates with the Mozambican Ministry of Health and Focus Fistula, a local organization, to help health providers and health systems in Niassa and Nampula provinces prevent obstetric fistula and provide holistic care for women experiencing it. This includes preparing health systems and providers to treat fistula, rehabilitating women who have experienced it, and helping them to reintegrate into society after receiving care.

Learn about the connection between gender-based violence and fistula on our blog.

MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery is tapping into the potential of Mozambique’s fast-growing private health sector to make high-quality family planning and certain primary health care services more accessible to all.  We are using a consultative process to develop feasible and viable modes of health care that are tailored to local contexts and desirable to both governments and communities. This process builds on recommendations from previous private health sector assessments and includes local and national stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health, local private sector associations, USAID, and implementing partners. We are incorporating the perspectives of potential clients and health providers to promote widespread, equitable access to health care throughout Mozambique.

MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics partners with the public sector to expand access to a full range of family planning methods in Niassa and Nampula provinces. We work with Mozambique’s Ministry of Health to train providers on long-acting reversible contraceptives, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs), and permanent methods of contraception, such as tubal ligation. Our training includes how to counsel their clients about these methods, insert and remove them, and assist clients with side effects.

Learn about the Counseling for Choice tool, which MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery uses to change the ways providers and individuals participate in family planning counseling discussions.

Immunization rates in Mozambique have been climbing, with an estimated 79 percent of children having received all three doses of the vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis in 2020; however, nearly one in five children are considered “zero-dose” and have not received even a single dose of this vaccine.³ MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity works with the government of Mozambique in Nampula and Zambézia provinces to monitor implementation of the Reaching Every District/Reaching Every Child approach, designed by the World Health Organization to address common obstacles to routine immunization in areas with low coverage. We collaborate with service providers, community leaders, families, and caregivers—particularly those in marginalized and underserved communities— to create solutions that address entrenched challenges to reaching children with immunization services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder for people to access routine immunization services. Together with local and national stakeholders, we analyze reasons for delayed and missed childhood vaccinations and adjust vaccination program approaches to protect Mozambicans from infectious diseases throughout their lives, especially early in life.

Discover how we have maintained focus on routine immunizations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.