Integrated Management of Maternal and Child Health in Artibonite (PRISMA II)

The project (also known by its French acronym PRISMA - Prise en charge intégrée de la santé de la mère et de l'enfant dans l'Artibonite) aims to increase the coverage of sexual and reproductive health services and quality care for mothers newborns and children in 8 of the 15 communes of the Artibonite department in Haiti. This is achieved by strengthening the health governance of the department; strengthening institutional emergency obstetric and neonatal care and community building. Project activities include: (1) constructing or rehabilitating spaces to improve services in seven basic emergency obstetric and neonatal health care centers for pregnant women; (2) training and mentoring managers nurses and health workers in family planning and maternal and neonatal health care; 3) carrying out micro-projects for the renovation or construction of drinking water supply sanitation and hygiene infrastructures in the health facilities of the project; (4) training and accompanying 150 members of local voluntary women's organizations and doubling the number of community health workers (269) responsible for sensitizing and referring populations to available health services; and (5) strengthening the functioning of the supply centers responsible for the distribution of medicines and medical equipment throughout the department. Overall health facilities supported by the project seek to provide such services to approximately 146 000 women and 66 000 children under five.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) significantly increased use of quality health services by women of childbearing age and children less than five years in eight communes supported by the project; and (2) strengthened leadership and governance of reproductive health and quality care for mothers newborns and children at the decentralised level for the entire Artibonite department.