Responses to crisis situations

The north of Mali has seen massive population displacement and is affected by very limited access to health care. Muskoka agencies were mobilized to ensure continuity of care in health districts and hospitals in the regions of Gao, Timbuktu, Kidal, Mopti and Ségou.

Multidisciplinary teams responsible for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health were deployed in the conflict zones. In total, 217 specialists were sent into the field, including 30 midwives and obstetric nurses, 8 obstetrician-gynecologists and 26 staff from the Expanded Programme on Immunization. As a result of these interventions, some health centers that were ransacked during the occupation of the north were able to reopen and ensure continuity of services. Urgent drugs (kits) and other medical and non-medical products were also supplied.

Equitable access to qualified health care staff

Improving Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care 

The number of health facilities qualified to provide BEmONC rose from close to zero in 2012 to 3 in 2013, 47 in 2014 and 72 in 2015.
In 2017, 34 BEmONC and 25 CEmONC services were fully operational.
As a result, the EmONC (Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care) available in 2015 covered a population of 5.5 million inhabitants out of the country’s population of 10.6 million, in line with international standards.
Activities are continuing to make them fully operational.

Adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health

In Guinea, the availability of adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health services has significantly increased since 2012, rising from 10 facilities providing SRH services for young people to 76 facilities in 2017. These services are provided in different types of facilities: public health facilities; health facilities managed by an NGO/CSO to create a welcoming space for adolescents and young people; and school and university clinics. Some services are also provided using advanced strategies such as family planning and HIV campaigns.
Activities that help these services become more effective include training management teams and service providers on AYSRH standards, supplying equipment and drugs and setting up welcoming spaces.

Community-based family planning

In Togo, family planning has benefited from a repositioning plan. Of all the strategic innovations, the community-based distribution of family planning products is the one that has helped the country demedicalize the prescribing of injectable contraceptive methods. The number of users has risen from 2,338 to more than 97,000 in four years.

Building on the success of community-based distribution, the Ministry of Health has started developing a national policy and new community-based interventions strategic plan, delegating the management of family planning methods to local health workers, including injectable contraceptives.

Improving infant and young child feeding 

Muskoka funding has helped implement a minimum package of nutrition-specific interventions by following a life-cycle approach, including the management of severe acute malnutrition in Togo.

The exclusive breastfeeding rate of children under six months rose from 48.1% in 2008 to 64.3% in 2017.

THE FRENCH MUSKOKA FUND IN senegal

Essential drugs: accessibility, quality, rationality

With the assistance of the French Muskoka Fund, Senegal has revised the current regulations for setting the price of drugs in the public sector, aimed at making the treatment of mothers and children more affordable.

The French Muskoka Fund has also helped national quality control laboratories in Senegal prepare for the WHO Prequalification Programme.

Adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health

In Senegal, the GINDIMA (Enlighten Me) toll-free number offers adolescents and young people comprehensive and appropriate information on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health, including STIs and HIV/AIDS.
Launched on 12 August 2016 by the Minister for Youth, the aim of the phone line is to increase access to AYSRH information and services by building support relationships remotely using information and communication technology. It is free for the user 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the information is available in French and Wolof and confidentiality and data protection are guaranteed.
From the day of the launch on 12 August 2016 to 31 December 2017, more than 230,000 calls were made. The main topics of these calls were sexuality, the menstrual cycle, the human body and puberty.

MDG 4 on child mortality has been achieved by Senegal

THE FRENCH MUSKOKA FUND IN BENIN

Read about some of our high-impact interventions:

Essential family practices

The French Muskoka Fund has helped strengthen communication between community stakeholders such as local authorities, religious leaders, community health workers, the media and local radio. Interventions have progressed steadily from a strictly promotional approach to a community-based approach, with the community at the center of dialogue, diagnosis and decision-making.
Benin has piloted a participative method of developing its communication plan, with community-based diagnosis.

Equitable access to qualified health care staff

A health labor market analysis supported by the French Muskoka Fund has enabled sensible and economically viable decisions to be made to get the health workers the country needs and revise the health sector investment plan to prioritize the health workforce. An initiative to assess and improve the quality of care was introduced in 2016-2017 with more than fifty maternity hospitals visited in total (in 7 French-speaking West African countries). Recommendations were disseminated and some corrective action taken, including: better division of human resources, creation of newborn corners, and better monitoring and quality control of essential drugs and supply mechanisms.