Burundi Maternal Child Health Project

As mothers and their children learn about food and nutrition, they are also more aware of other health needs. Through the project, they better understand how spacing and delaying births improves their families’ health.

“We classify this project as a community-based initiative. But after spending just a few days…I can say the project is not community-based; it is community-driven.” —Pathfinder staff , on the Maternal and Child Health Project

Clients queue for family planning services. ‘Integrated Mobile Teams’ appear to be successful at reaching male clients, especially for contraceptive services. As one client said, “We are happy getting this service right in our village.”

The USAID-funded Maternal and Child Health Program worked with the government of Burundi to improve maternal and child health in two provinces. As Burundi transitions to a new National Health Development Plan, the Maternal and Child Health Program continued to maintain, reinforce, and expand on programmatic outcomes achieved over the past five years.

At the same time, Pathfinder supported new initiatives such as the decentralization of the management of the health system and the performance-based financing initiative, which are core key elements of the National Health Development Plan. All these interventions took place at the community, clinic, and institutional levels.

The project’s achievements include significant increases in the percent of deliveries attended by skilled professionals, substantial decreases in the number of underweight infants, and a noticeable rise in the number of women reported as using modern methods of contraception.