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Regional Health Office
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Volume 5, Issue 1

In This Issue
Participants of WAHO's regional meeting on key populations and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in West Africa
 
Ministers Sign Declaration to End Barriers to HIV Services for Key Populations

The West African Health Organization (WAHO) held a regional meeting with the theme “Key Populations and the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in West Africa: Recommitting to Action,” on April 10, 2015 in Dakar, Senegal.  With support from USAID/West Africa, and in partnership with UNAIDS, WAHO brought together Ministers of Health, Justice Ministries' staff, directors of national police forces, technical experts, donors and representatives of civil society organizations from nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  Ministers of Health from 12 of the 15 ECOWAS member states signed a declaration of commitment to invest in health, social, and legal/justice services for key populations most affected by HIV in the region.

ECOWAS has set ambitious goals to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in its 15 member states: 90 percent of people living with HIV will know their status; 90 percent of those tested will have access to treatment; and 90 percent of those on treatment will attain sustainable undetectable viral loads, by 2020. These targets coincide with global targets set by UNAIDS in 2014. Read More
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AgirPF Togo Country Manager donates equipment to the President of ATBEF  
USAID/WA Supports Family Planning Centers of Excellence

Rouguiatou Diallo, Chief of Party, AgirPF Project, USAID/WA

USAID/WA supports Ministries of Health (MOHs) and other local partners to increase access to, quality of, and demand for family planning (FP) in five countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Niger and Togo.
 
One technical approach of the USAID/WA-funded AgirPF project to improve the quality of FP services is to develop a Family Planning Center of Excellence (CoE) in each focus country. The role of the CoE is to: (i) provide a model of the highest standard of FP service delivery, and (ii) train health care providers to deliver high quality family planning services.  At these centers, managers, providers, community leaders, policymakers and clients are able to observe high-quality services, effective community engagement, respect for clients’ rights, and the impact of strengthening the enabling environment for family planning. Three health facilities were selected and are receiving support to meet their goal of becoming a CoE:

 
        Togo: Main clinic of Association Togolaise pour le Bien-Etre Familial in Lomé
        Niger: Centre National de Sante de la Reproduction (CNSR) in Niamey
        Burkina: Bogodogo Health District Hospital in Ouagadougou

 
So far, AgirPF has trained trainers in these centers using a package that consists of components for refresher training for trainers, facilitative supervisions, adult training and learning exercises, and FP technology. These trainers will act as a pool of expert FP Trainers for West Africa.

As a result of participatory organizational capacity assessments, AgirPF and the CoEs developed action plans for capacity strengthening to improve the quality FP service delivery and to act as a regional CoE.  ATBEF is close to becoming the first fully functional FP Center of Excellence.   In addition to training trainers, USAID/WA has procured training and service provision equipment to assist ATBEF to fulfill its role as a CoE.
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WAHO Announces ECOWAS Good Practices Forum in Health

Jeanne Hamon, Project Officer, and Abdoulaye Diagne, Senior Technical Advisor, LMG/West Africa
 
As a strategic leader working to improve the health of the region’s population, the West African Health Organization (WAHO) is preparing to host its first ECOWAS Good Practices Forum in Health from July 29-31, 2015, in Ouagadougou, with the theme “Ending Preventable Mother and Child Deaths in West Africa - what works in Reproductive Health and Family Planning."  Leadership, management and governance; health service delivery approaches; socio-cultural approaches and advocacy; and scalability and sustainability of effective practices are all topics that will be presented and discussed at the forum.

To prepare, the USAID-funded Leadership, Management and Governance project worked with WAHO and key partners to hold a planning and consensus building workshop at the end of January 2015. WAHO staff, international and regional partners, and technical experts met at WAHO in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, to outline the road map for working with countries and partners to identify and document good practices for scale-up in the region.
 
Key outcomes of the workshop included reaching consensus on conceptual definitions for good, promising, and innovative practices; defining the criteria for selecting good practices; identifying preliminary good practices in family planning, maternal and child health, and adolescents; and outlining the next steps to prepare for the forum.
 
Do you have good practices to share?  WAHO has launched  a call for abstracts to invite ECOWAS member states  and development partners to submit abstracts for good, promising, and innovative practices. Applicants whose abstracts are accepted will be invited to present at the forum.
 
“We are now on the best path to focus on the proven practices for wider impact, aligning our action and our partners’ actions in the same agenda,” said Dr. Namoudou Keita, Professional Officer Primary Health Care/Health Systems Strengthening at WAHO.
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Moringa Production: Integrating WASH and Food Security

Souleymane Zaré , USAID WA-WASH Public Relation and Communication Officer
Mrs. Pauline Kangoro, leader of the women's group
 
At 60 years old, Mrs. Pauline Kangoro heads a women's group of 30 moringa producers and together they are raising moringa frenzy in their village of Koukouldi in the Center West region of Burkina Faso. In 2013, the USAID WA-WASH project identified the married mother of four as a leader in her community for the production of moringa and sent her for training in Niger along with a group of nine lead gardeners. A year later, Pauline was invited to the Ghana Permaculture Institute to learn how to process moringa for cosmetic uses.

Pauline’s accomplishments in promoting moringa demonstrate the effectiveness of the Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS) approach that includes a gender mainstreaming component to improve sustainable access to water for food security.  In addition to the components on water, sanitation and hygiene, the USAID WA-WASH project creates opportunities for women to develop livelihood activities in  agriculture or livestock production. Livelihood activities, such as growing moringa, allow women to improve nutrition and food security for their families which leads to more financial resources to invest in water, sanitation, hygiene and health. 

Aware of the benefits of consuming moringa, the Koukouldi women’s association urges women to use this plant to treat their malnourished children.  “In the beginning, some moms were skeptical when we talked to them about the nutritional virtues of moringa. But thanks to the training they received, lots of moms know how to use the plant to improve the nutrition of their children. Currently, we have been able to treat over 100 children from this locality and the surrounding villages who were suffering from malnutrition," affirmed Pauline.

In the Center West region of Burkina Faso, the prevalence of acute malnutrition was estimated at 12.8 percent in 2012. The highly-nutritious moringa plant may be part of the solution to this problem. According to experts, a tablespoon of moringa powder taken three times a day as a supplement can fill the nutritional gap for infants (aged 6 months to 3 years), providing 42 percent of their daily value of protein, 310% of vitamin A, 125 percent of calcium, 41 percent of potassium and 71 percent of iron. Read more
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USAID/Senegal Partners with Public and Private sectors to Launch Sayana Press Contraceptive

Elizabeth Williams, Health Communication and Policy Analyst, USAID/Senegal

Photo credit - Hawa Talla – IntraHealth International Senegal 
Boury receives quarterly shot of Sayana Press                                
Last month, Boury carried her 10 month-old-baby, Marème, to a health facility in Joal, Senegal to receive her vaccines, but Boury also received a new service that is available. She received Sayana Press, a subcutaneous contraceptive injection that will protect her from an unintended pregnancy for three months.

USAID is supporting the Government of Senegal’s Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and PATH, to increase contraceptive access as part of the 2012 Family Planning 2020 initiative. This support contributes to fulfilling a pledge by 150 global stakeholders to reach 120 million more women in the world’s poorest countries with voluntary family planning services by 2020.

In addition, donor partners committed to work with national programs to offer Sayana Press to women in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia between 2013 and 2016. This initiative supports Senegal’s effort to reduce its 30 percent unmet demand for modern contraception. The Ministry, with assistance from USAID/Senegal’s partners, Intrahealth, Childfund and Agence Pour Developpement Marketing Social (ADEMAS), is introducing Sayana Press through public and private sector pharmacies nationwide at a price equivalent to U.S. $2.20 per shot. 

For Boury and thousands of women like her, Sayana Press provides their families with another contraception method to support their choices for reproductive health. “Marème is my fifth child and I wish to space births,” Boury said. “Using Sayana Press will give me the time to take care of my baby, fully recover, and take care of my other children.” 
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Fistula Care: Support for Togolese Women 

Karen Beattie, Project Director Fistula Care Plus (Retired), EngenderHealth
Dr. Kindy Diallo and colleagues operating on a patient during the Fistula Care Campaign in Togo
One of the greatest pleasures of my work as director of Fistula Care Plus is the recognition that amidst so many world challenges, there are individuals and groups who care deeply about women, their reproductive health, and their future.  In this very competitive world, they recognize that women are their future and that collaboration and partnership is the way to ensure that future. As I wrote this, Dr. Kindy Diallo, an eminent and highly skilled surgeon from Guinea, a country racked by Ebola in some parts, was in Sokodé, Togo working in partnership with Togolese surgeons, providing life-changing surgery to 100 women with obstetric fistula.
 
How did this come about?  Communities in Togo had been informed that fistula surgeries would be available in Sokodé at the beginning of December 2014.  Unfortunately, Dr. Dolorés Nembunzu, the very dedicated surgeon from Kinshasa who had conducted a similar campaign in collaboration with Togolese surgeons in October, was unable to participate because of her own very busy schedule.  UNFPA, the organizers of the campaign, asked EngenderHealth, through USAID/West Africa’s AgirPF and Fistula Care Plus projects, if we could identify a competent surgeon to assist at short notice.  (We had previously collaborated on an assessment of access to fistula services in Togo.)  We communicated with our colleagues in Guinea and at the Geneva Foundation for Medical Research (GFMER) to identify one or two surgeons who might be able to assist.  The GFMER colleague tried very hard to do this, but the timing was so short – really only one week’s notice.  Dr. Diallo was able to free himself and with USAID/West Africa mission support and coordination through EngenderHealth, arrived in Togo on December 2, began operating on December 3 and continued until December 17.  The Ministry of Health of Togo and UNFPA bore the costs of the surgeries.  

Seven institutions and at least ten individuals coordinated and collaborated to make the campaign a success: Dr. Kindy Diallo, of Guinea and Dr. Dolorés Nembunzu, of D.R. Congo; the Government of Togo’s Ministry of Health and the Director and staff of Sokodé Hospital; UNFPA; USAID; USAID/West Africa’s AgirPF and Fistula Care Plus projects, both implemented by EngenderHealthGeneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER); and King Baudouin Foundation's Solidarite Sante et Developpement (SSD) project. These individuals and institutions deserve our recognition and we know that at least 100 women will have their lives transformed as a result of this great effort. 
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Nigeria Expands Integrated Delivery of Life-Saving Medicines for Newborns and Mothers

Nosakhare Orobaton, USAID/TSHIP, Gertrude Odezugo, USAID/Nigeria 
In Nigeria, two out of every three babies are delivered at home without skilled assistance, which contributes to high maternal and newborn deaths. USAID/Nigeria’s Targeted States High Impact Project (TSHIP) has successfully rolled-out and scaled-up, community distribution of misoprostol.  Three tablets of misoprostol are ingested by the mother during the “golden hour” after the child is born, to prevent postpartum (after-birth) bleeding. This treatment is twinned with the application of chlorhexidine 4 percent gel to the freshly-cut cord of the newborn.  

Between April 2013 and August 2014, nearly 133,000 mother-newborn pairs were reached in the northern States of Bauchi and Sokoto, Nigeria. Consequently, 99.7 percent of newborns survived the first 28 days of life; and 99.7 percent mothers survived the 42-day postnatal period, in Sokoto State. Bauchi State achieved similar results. These communities have also reported fewer funerals for mother and neonates.  

Emulating Sokoto and Bauchi, eight other states have since launched their own programs.  To meet demand, the availability of chlorhexidine gel in Nigeria rose from zero to over one million tubes between March 2013 and December 2014. 

Last year, through a successful public-private partnership, a local manufacturer was certified to produce chlorhexidine. The plant has an annual production capacity of 60 million tubes.

Now that more mothers and newborns in Nigeria enjoy favorable outcomes, the next agenda is to guarantee the sustainability of this successful initiative. 
 
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Peer Educator Saves a Life
Peer educator "Mary" works with USAID/West Africa's PACTE-VIH project. She is a peer educator for Female Sex Workers in Cinkasse, a border town of Burkina Faso and Togo. Mary gave the personal account below.

One evening, a lady from the neighborhood approached me and said this to me: 'You worked with the sex workers, right? A woman is dying in a nearby house. All her relatives are refusing to help her because they suspect that she has AIDS and if nothing is done immediately she will die.' She showed me the compound and left. I looked round the compound and I found a room; I peeped inside the room and was greeted with a stinking smell. I was about to leave when I heard some loud groaning. I entered the room with my nose covered and I saw a woman lying on the floor in her own excrement. I hurried out of the room to call my colleagues to join me urgently. Together we cleaned the lady with bleached-soaked water and conveyed her to a nearby hospital. At the hospital, the nurse on duty told us that she was in coma and about to die so no need to waste time and money on drugs. We insisted and for 15 minutes we argued with the nurse who later complied with our request. We later took turns at her bedside till morning.

Around 10 o’clock the following morning, a colleague phoned me that the lady had regained consciousness. I hurried to the hospital and the moment I saw her, I burst into tears, tears of joy. Four days later, the young woman was discharged from the hospital after being put on ARV treatment.

One day, I was passing in front of a bar and I heard: 'Sister, Sister.' I turned and I came face to face with a young lady who did not look familiar. 'Sister, don’t you recognize me? I am the young lady you saved by taking me to the hospital,' she exclaimed. We hugged and I asked what she was doing in the bar. 'I am the manager,' she proudly replied. 'Sister, come in and have a drink,' she added. I politely refused the invitation and promised her to make it another time.

The young lady is today back on her feet; she has joined our team and from time to time testifies during our HIV/AIDS testing and counseling outreach campaigns and also at discussion groups for observance.

You see, apart from all the challenges we face in peer education, we are happy that the community is recognizing our role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is our motivation.

 
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Monitoring Malaria Interventions in Burkina Faso

Traore Bakari, Health Specialist for USAID in Burkina Faso
Lillian Benjamin, Jhpiego's President and members of the Kabega Health Center staff
High level field visit

Health Officer Lillian Benjamin and Dr. Bakari Traore, Health Specialist, of USAID in Burkina Faso accompanied the Jhpiego President, Vice President and Country Director on a field site visit to the Kabega Health Center in Koupela Health District to monitor activities under the Improving Malaria Care Project. The Health Center’s staff, the District Health Chief Medical Officer, and community members were present for the visit.

During the site visit, Health Center staff presented on their malaria control interventions, such as intermittent preventive malaria treatment with Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, routine distribution of bed nets, rapid diagnostic testing, and treatment, including of severe malaria cases.

Overall participants were satisfied with the quality of services offered by health care providers with the technical support of Jhpiego
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ANNOUNCEMENT

The USAID/West Africa Regional Health Office has awarded a five year Cost Plus Fixed fee Contract for the Activity, "Evidence for Development in Health (E4D)," to International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI) and its partners, University of California, Berkeley Bixby Center for Population, Center for the Promotion of Human Rights and Development in Africa (CPHDA), Institut pour la Recherche, le développement Socio-économique et la Communication (IRESCO), and Development Gateway (DG).  

The regional contract will provide evaluation and operations research services, as well as capacity strengthening for local organizations.  It is available for buy-in from USAID health programs across West Africa. 

USAID health offices interested in having evaluations or research done by E4D in FY 2016 should email a list of proposed studies (label: evaluation (performance or impact), research, assessment, etc.), including geographic focus, estimated budget, estimated timelines no later than May 30, 2015

Forward inquiries and details to the COR, Sheila Mensah at (smensah@usaid.gov).
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                  What's Happening in the Region
  • Regional Workshop on HIV/AIDS Commodity Security           
  • World Malaria Day                                                                  
  • Africa Regional Meeting on Using Digital Health to Overcome Barriers to EPCMD and Achieving Universal Health Coverage    
  • International Day of Families                                                 
  • USAID-WAHO HIS Harmonization meeting                            
  • World No-Tobacco Day                                                         
  • World Blood Donor Day                                                       
  • World Population Day                                                            
  • World Hepatitis Day                                                              
  • ECOWAS Best Practices Forum in Health                              


  

April 20-21, Accra
April 25

May 4-8, Lilongwe, Malawi


May 15
May 15-17, Accra

May 31
June 14  
July 11
July 28
July 29-31, Ouagadougou 
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USAID/WA Regional Health Office Mission Statement

We are a center of learning and leveraging that partners to improve the health status of vulnerable populations in West Africa through sustainable, evidence-based solutions




 
Copyright © 2015. USAID/West Africa, All rights reserved.

West Africa Regional Mission
No. 24 Fourth Circular Rd., Cantonments
P.O. Box 1630
Accra, Ghana

www.usaid.gov/west-africa-regional

 

Please forward inquiries/subscriber requests to
Sheila Mensah
Phone: +233-302-741467
Fax: +233-302-741365
smensah@usaid.gov


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