Project Aisha is implemented by a consortium of four organizations: Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), Ingress Health Partners, MDOC Healthcare, and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
Stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector have confirmed a 58% reduction in maternal mortality rate across 32 health facilities in Lagos and Kaduna state, achieved through the implementation of Project AISHA.
This was highlighted at the Maternal Health Quality Improvement (MHQI) Summit in Lagos on Thursday.
Meaning Alive and Well, Project Aisha is a maternal health initiative designed to address the high rates of maternal mortality and obstetric complications in Nigeria.
Supported by MSD under the enhancement system for safer birth initiatives, Project Aisha is implemented by a consortium of four organizations: the four organizations (HSDF), Ingress Health Partners, MDOC Healthcare, and the Healthcare Improvement Institute (IHI).
According to director of Managing Project Aisha, Nigeria Opera at Layi Olatawura, the Nigerian business of HSDF, the initiative strengthened the capacity of more than 700 healthcare workers, reaching over 110,000 women who received maternal health services.
Government intervention
At the summit, Muhammad Pate, Coordination Minister for Health and Social Welfare, highlighted the important role of “quality care as an accelerator for maternal health equity.”
Patee, represented by Samuel Oyenyi, Head of Reproductive Health, said quality care ensures that all pregnant women receive effective, safe, respectful and timely service throughout their pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care.
“Despite progress, maternal mortality rates remained unacceptably high, with Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate recorded a mortality rate of 512 per 100,000 births as of 2018,” he said.
“The current figures for 2024 are still being analyzed, but the need to reduce these figures is urgent.”
While acknowledging the impact of Project Aisha, he also highlighted the government’s efforts to combat mother mortality.
Patee said the ministry is expanding several initiatives, including the establishment of a maternal health centre with key products and equipped with skilled healthcare workers.
He noted that the department is advocating for the establishment of a dedicated department of family health at the state level to effectively coordinate maternal mortality reduction programs.
He also highlighted the importance of financial protection mechanisms such as community-based health insurance, reducing out-of-pocket costs that often prevent women from accessing quality care.
The summit also featured a panel session featuring National Director of Health Insurance (NHIA) Kelechi Ohili. Co-founder and CEO of MDOC; Representatives of Nneka Mobisson, SA SA To The President on Health, Salma Anas and official Fatima Mahmoud. National coordinators for Nigeria, Nigeria, Muntaka Umar Sadiq and others.
Project objectives and results
According to the HSDF, Project Aisha has supported more than 200,000 women since its establishment in September 2022 by improving access to quality maternal health services in 48 public and private health facilities.
According to Yewande Ogundeji, managing principal of global operations at HSDF, the project is also involved in filling the gap between traditional births and communities.
Ogundeji noted that the results included a 25% reduction in facility-based maternal deaths and a 58% reduction in severe pupal lamps, postpartum bleeding, and deaths from obstructed labor.
“But the real question is to maintain these benefits? How do we embed them in long-term health system reform? How do we ensure that quality improvements will ensure that our healthcare culture is instituted, locally guided and permanent character of becoming financially sustainable?” she said.
Ms Ogundeji highlighted the need for collaboration with national programs such as the NHIA’s comprehensive emergency obstetric and maternal care (CEOMC) scheme to ensure timely access to life-saving interventions.
She also proposed to integrate “proven tools” such as the Change Package Document, launched at the summit, into a national quality improvement framework to guide public and private sector improvement interventions.
Proven strategies
Ingressing the intervention elements, Orode Doherty said the success of the project was attributed to improved clinical decision-making, reduced waiting times and focusing on high-risk cases.
Speaking about the change package, Doherty said the documents tested recorded proven interventions that proved that health facilities could be employed to reduce mother deaths.
“This package provides a step-by-step roadmap that other providers can use in context to reduce mother deaths,” Doherty added.
In his comments, Ibrahim Mustafa, Standing Secretary of the Lagos State Primary Health Care Committee, noted that the success recorded under the initiative underscores the importance of continuing quality improvement in healthcare delivery.
Mustafa highlights the importance of institutionalizing the quality improvement process, noting that the progress has already been visible.
“There’s not a one-time quality improvement. It’s a continuous process and the good thing is that we’re beginning to see improvements. We need to embed this in our system,” he said.
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From the fans’ side, Nigeria’s Iyadunni Olubode is leading the country of mother MSD and stressed that addressing the death rate of mothers in Nigeria should not be left to the government alone.
“Nigeria continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth. Resolving this crisis requires multi-sectoral cooperation, which involves stepping up the private sector, as we did here,” she said.
Lessons from Africa
In his presentation, Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, CEO of the National Vaccine Institute in Ghana, reinforced the importance of a quality improvement framework in the fight against maternal mortality.
Citing a 40% decrease in mother deaths over the past 23 years, she acknowledged that Africa still carries 70% of the global burden of mother deaths, with Nigeria’s birth rate being around 545 per 100,000 people.
Sodzi highlighted the success of quality improvement interventions from Mozambique and Ethiopia. There, we have guided target strategies that address both direct medical causes and systematic challenges.
He urged stakeholders to address the role of healthcare facilities’ environments and to broadly share Nigerian progress and lessons across Africa.
