Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator:
Cross-Country Learning Activity
About The Accelerator
Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH), or excessive bleeding after childbirth, remains a leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. Despite the significant progress made in skilled birth attendance, and availability of proven interventions for prevention and management of PPH, timely access to blood transfusions as an essential component of emergency obstetric care remains a challenge in settings where the national blood supply and safe blood systems are inadequate.
The Office of Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) within USAID’s Bureau for Global Health is providing MCH core funds through two global health mechanisms—the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSSA) to develop and implement a program of work in Safe Blood in select countries.
The Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSSA) is a six-year global initiative led by Results for Development (R4D) and funded by USAID that expedites progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This accelerator is supporting supporting safe blood system strengthening in three program countries (Liberia, Malawi, and Rwanda) to help analyze existing blood systems, identify primary barriers/challenges to availability of safe blood for treatment of PPH, and identify solutions/opportunities.
What is the cross-country Learning Activity?
Following key informant interviews across all three countries and the co-creation session at the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday, 12 May 2023, topics for learning were identified and prioritized by country Safe Blood stakeholders. The topics identified were, (1) funding strategies and sustainable sources of funding; (2) hemovigilance; (3) blood and blood plasma donor recruitment, retention, and management; (4) coordination between the National Blood Service and regional/district hospitals; and (5) Data generation, use, and management (service delivery and blood donors).
The HSS Accelerator team comprised of Results for Development (R4D) and Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) are organizing and facilitating cross country learning among Liberia, Malawi, and Rwanda stakeholders. These cross-country learning events are to ensure that Liberia, Malawi, and Rwanda can share approaches, learnings, and solutions with each other. The country teams will also learn about and from practices in the wider Sub-Saharan African region (and beyond), interventions of innovative organizations, and the expertise of global practitioners. More precisely, the learning events will strive to assist blood system change agents in learning from and replicating generated information for timely decision-making and evidence-building through peer learning. By using country-led, demand-driven joint learning methods as a complementary form of technical assistance, this exchange will support leadership, decision-making, implementation, and analysis of impact to local experts and institutions that can drive health systems change.