With the 2015 launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health, and the Global Financing Facility, the world is poised to improve the survival, health, and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescents. In particular, making progress in India is crucial because it bears so much of the world’s burden of mortality and morbidity. Global and national goals, plans, and strategies are just the first step, however. The accountability mechanisms put in place to ensure that budgets, programs, and policies are implemented effectively and benefit the target communities are equally important. India can learn valuable lessons from examples of accountability mechanisms led by or involving civil society…read more
Giving Women in India the Voice and Choice to Drive Maternal Healthcare Quality
Posted onPutting the Pieces Together: An Appreciative Model for Developing a Theory of Change
Posted onSeven grantees, 13 states, three levels of government and one mission: to increase accountability for maternal health in Nigeria, which has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality ratios. This presented a complex, multi-faceted context for establishing a theory of change to guide an evaluation of a grant portfolio in Nigeria… read more
Why We Need Legal Accountability for Maternal Health
Posted onIf we all agree that maternal mortality represents a human rights violation, why do lawyers, providers, NGOs, and individuals hesitate to use the legal system in the wake of a maternal death or morbidity? The legal system is used to protect rights and health everyday. However, for maternal health related violations, the law remains an underused resource for accountability… read more
Promoting Social Accountability Through the Use of Picture Materials for Non-literate Women in Uttar Pradesh, India
Posted onHigh rates of maternal mortality in many parts of northern India persist owing to an inadequately equipped public health system compounded by disrespectful and negligent treatment of poor women. The Government of India has instituted several measures to enable women to access maternal care without costs barriers, and many health messages reach communities about pregnancy care and hospital births. But there is far less public education on health entitlements and service guarantees; consequently, the frontline providers take advantage of this to trick women into paying for free services such as treatment, medicines and transport… read more
Call for Posts! Social Accountability and Community Mobilization to Improve Maternal Health
Posted onThis post is the first in our new blog series, “Social accountability and community mobilization for maternal health,” hosted with COPASAH and the Centre for Health and Social Justice (CHSJ). From holding governments accountable with legislation for maternal deaths to community monitoring of quality of maternal health care, social accountability can be a powerful tool to empower communities to protect the health of women and mothers. Are you working in this area? Contribute a post to the series!… read more