Tana North Integrated Maternal and Child Health Project

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Tana North Integrated Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Project will address the MCH needs and policy targets by contributing to the expansion of Community Health Strategy (CHS) in the hard to reach and marginalised populations living within Tana North District. It will achieve this through empowerment of communities to use and demand for MCH and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) related services and simultaneously enhance the capacity of Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MoPHS) to attend to the needs of the communities. The intervention will incorporate community participation in addressing various health needs at the community level informed by the CHS with particular emphasis on preventive and promotive community health. It will be complimented by the experience and capacity of Red Cross through its community-based approach Community Based Health and First Aid (CBHFA), volunteer management and health promotion tools that will enable the community ownership hence, support project sustainability. By strengthening the preventive measures, the community will be able to divert their resources previously used in health care to other priority areas thereby potentially reducing the poverty levels. In addition, the operational research will provide evidence on the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in health care provision at level 1,2 and 3 in the recently devolved government system.