Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, we work with the government and local organizations to improve the health of women, children, and communities.
MOMENTUM is partnering with nearly 40 countries to accelerate progress and advance USAID’s work to save lives and improve health outcomes for women, children, families, and communities in all of their diversity. MOMENTUM brings together specialized technical and country expertise through six distinct yet integrated awards with the depth and breadth of experience to spur reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity.
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership partners with the Government of Sierra Leone and local and national organizations to improve the health of women, children, and communities.
Keeping Health Facilities Clean, Safe, and Accessible During COVID-19
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, health facilities in Sierra Leone rapidly mobilized to minimize its effect on essential health services for women and children. From November 2020 to September 2022, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership supported public and faith-based facilities across four districts to assess their care and improve their ability to provide safe, sanitary conditions for their clients and employees. We also helped facilities improve sanitation and curb the spread of infection through infection prevention and control measures.
Additionally, MOMENTUM supported health workers to develop communication and engagement strategies to build awareness in the community on how to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and address fears and misinformation about the disease. These strategies were designed to help health workers bolster people’s confidence in using essential health care and support services, including those focused on gender-based violence.
Learn more about how we worked with health facilities to combat the spread of COVID-19 and other infections in Sierra Leone.
Enhanced Knowledge, Improved Practices
In 2022, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership introduced the Helping Mothers Survive (HMS) and Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) learning package and guidelines to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation, which trains health providers on preventing, detecting, and treating sepsis and asphyxia in premature babies. In 2023, MOMENTUM introduced additional modules on prolonged and obstructed delivery, essential care of small and sick babies, essential care for every baby, and care for pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. As of August 2023, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation has trained 215 providers across four districts using the “low-dose, high-frequency” training approach that allows trainers to provide onsite clinical training and mentorship. This approach utilizes facility-level clinical coordinators to conduct regular peer clinical mentorship.
Improving Quality of Care for Women and Children
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership is working alongside Sierra Leone’s National Quality Management Unit to strengthen the quality of care for women and children at 53 facilities. MOMENTUM has strengthened the capacity of 44 national and district technical leads and 64 maternal and newborn health district trainers on the application of quality improvement methods and tools. With MOMENTUM’s support, Sierra Leone has a network of 73 quality improvement projects.
Safeguarding Essential Health Services During the Pandemic
MOMENTUM collaborates with the Government of Sierra Leone to strengthen systems that monitor COVID-19 data and disruptions to essential health services. In addition, we help the government adapt national strategies, guidelines, and protocols so they can better respond to COVID-19 and better support community health workers to deliver services meeting the needs of their communities.
Supporting Public Investments in Health Financing
Global evidence has shown that investments in national community health worker programs can generate positive returns in health, economics, and society.1 Sierra Leone’s growing population and increasing health care needs, coupled with very low public investment in health care, have created a need to explore health financing and delivery models that will provide the best health outcomes using available resources. Using a combination of three tools—the Community Health Planning and Costing Tool, the Community Health Worker Coverage and Capacity Tool, and the Lives Saved Tool—MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership is supporting the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to develop an investment case for the Sierra Leone Community Health Worker program to attract adequate investment in health financing, especially in government budgetary processes. The investment case can also be used as an advocacy tool to increase sustainable financing for community health systems.
Managing Childhood Illnesses
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership is working with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to better understand barriers to effective implementation of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), a facility-based strategy developed by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund to improve treatment of childhood illnesses and promote healthy growth. Findings from this work will be combined with similar studies in Ghana and Malawi to advance global and national recommendations to strengthen IMCI implementation.
Dive into our IMCI assessment report from Sierra Leone.
Addressing the Unique Needs of Adolescents and Youth
Using MOMENTUM’s Adolescent and Gender Health Responsive Systems tool, MOMENTUM is providing targeted technical support to national and district stakeholders to adopt a more sustainable and comprehensive approach to reaching adolescents and youth throughout the health system. We conducted an assessment of the health system in Pujehun district to examine its responsiveness to adolescent and youth needs and used the findings to help create an action plan.
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: Jhpiego, Save the Children, Pact, Avenir Health, Ubora Institute, Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone (CHASL), Sierra Leone Midwives Association, FOCUS 1000, Health Alert Sierra Leone
References
- Dahn, B. et al. Strengthening Primary Health Care Through Community Health Workers: Investment Case and Financing Recommendations. 2015. http://www.healthenvoy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CHW-Financing-FINAL-July-15-2015.pdf.
Last updated February 2024.