Demonstrating accountability, learning from implementation

Overview

By the end of 2017, at least half the world’s population could not obtain essential health services because they were inaccessible, unavailable, unaffordable or of poor quality. Achieving universal health coverage (UHC), emphasized in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “implies that all people have access, without discrimination, to nationally determined sets of the promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative basic health services needed and essential, safe, affordable, effective and quality medicines, while ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the users to financial hardship,” (p. 4). Improving quality of care is therefore critical for achieving UHC and the health-related SDG targets by 2030. The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era reiterates this idea, stating that “The burden of mortality attributable to poor care is larger than that due to lack of access to care,” (p. 795).

Responding to this call, the governments of Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania established the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network) in February 2017. Supported by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, technical partners and donors, the Network countries have developed national strategies for quality of care (QoC) in the health sector and are using maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) as a pathfinder to learn how to implement QoC interventions in a sustainable way and at scale. Aiming to halve maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths in health facilities by 2022, participating countries are working to improve QoC in health facilities by pursuing four strategic objectives:

• Leadership: Build and strengthen national institutions and mechanisms for improving QoC in the health sector
• Action: Accelerate and sustain implementation of QoC improvements for mothers and newborns
• Learning: Facilitate learning, share knowledge and generate evidence on quality of care
• Accountability: Develop, strengthen and sustain institutions and mechanisms for accountability for QoC