Meeting Critical Health Care and Nutritional Needs in Kenya

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased uptake of a critical nutritional package by vulnerable women and children living in coastal region of Kenya; (2) increased utilization of critical maternal, neonatal and child health services by vulnerable women and children living in the coastal region of Kenya; and (3) improved programs and policies to expand uptake of a critical nutritional package and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services in vulnerable populations in Africa.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (July 2015) include: (1) training of 91 community health volunteers (CHVs) in maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and nutrition assessment, and delivered capacity building programs on critical MNCH and nutrition interventions; (2) 222 health providers across all sub-counties were trained on referral, community linkages and the critical package of MNCH and nutrition services; 3) 52 Department of Agriculture staff were trained on food security interventions; (4) the project reached 8,795 women of reproductive age, including 1,076 pregnant women, 509 postpartum women and 6,000 women with children under five as well as 7,105 children under five; (5) 73% of all pregnant women, 92% of children less than two years old and 72% of children under five were linked to the critical package of quality MNCH and nutrition services; (6) 1,600 households with women aged 15-49 participated in the food security interventions and 55% of households had kitchen gardens; (7) the project demonstrated improvement from baseline on many of the key MNCH and nutrition interventions that are known to ultimately improve MNCH and nutrition outcomes, including: improved early antenatal care (ANC) before 20 weeks gestation (40% to 71%); improved percentage of women who had 4 or more ANC visits (62% to 66%); increased facility delivery with skilled attendant (66% to 82%); improved postnatal care for both mother and newborn (16% to 69%); improved exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (25% to 73%); improved diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus immunization (DPT 3) coverage (80% to 94%); improved demand for family planning satisfied (34% to 58%) and improved antibiotic treatment for pneumonia (28% to 51%); and (8) improvement in utilization of the critical MNCH and nutrition interventions package from 0% to 57%.