Q1 Report 2022

A combination of improved field conditions (no monsoons and no COVID-related restrictions) and increased participation in our virtual training sessions by 35% created optimal conditions and exciting progress towards our Q1 targets. Additionally, we are pleased to share that as the improved COVID conditions alleviated some of the pressure on local budgets, our local partners were able to increase their cost-sharing efforts which is what also allowed us to exceed several targets as well as some of our Q2 targets. The rural municipalities funded 50% of the participants of our community outreach provider trainings and 25% of the participants of the local stakeholder trainings this past quarter, expanding our capacity to reach additional trainees. Local municipalities also funded 50% of two additional eHealth trainings that were deployed in Kavrepalanchok District as a part of the expansion of the electronic health records system in rural Nepal.

Signed in February of this year, our new five years project agreement with the Social Welfare Council (SWC) outlines OHW’s priorities and activities to be addressed in Nepal over the next five years. It is essential to ensure continued alignment with our government partners and formalize our path to continue our current program activities in our active program districts, as well as in our 15 new districts from the Madesh and Karnali provinces and provide supplemental support to our completed district of Dolpa. As a part of the renewal process, our team conducted an in-depth review of our program performance over the last five years and we are happy to report that we successfully met all targets outlined in our previous Project Agreement.

Within our new Project Agreement, we are prioritizing efforts to strengthen our partnerships with the new provincial governments. Subsequently, we have been actively engaging provincial-level government officials to review our program aims and have signed an amendment to our existing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) of Madhesh Province. This amendment further defines our provincial level partnership within the broader context of our new Project Agreement towards increasing provincial level program ownership to better support maternal and neonatal health in Madhesh province.

In alignment with our 3-year Strategic Plan, our team has been developing the partnership agreements, manuals, and policies necessary for our new district level Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) implementation partners in order for us to start our program activities in our new districts. We have also developed new program implementation guidelines to ensure our program activities are implemented as per our program mandate.

After months of hard work in partnership with the National Health Training Center, the updated learning resource package that we jointly developed for SBAs enrolled in the 3-week rural ultrasound training program was formally approved by the Government of Nepal. This package includes a reference book, a facilitator’s guide, a learner’s guide and a logbook for learners.

In our program districts, the MNH helpline supported 24 emergencies and the telehealth program facilitated ANC sessions with 3,713 pregnant women and PNC sessions with 1,434 recently delivered women. Additionally, a one-day workshop was organized to disseminate the findings of our evaluation of the MNH helpline. Feedback was positive from the Government representatives attending the program, who felt that the MNH helpline was a very relevant program for maternal and newborn health in Nepal and supported investment in the national scale-up of the program.

Access to COVID vaccines is particularly important to protect pregnant women and in Nepal this access is hampered by the lack of appropriate available cold storage facilities. As a part of our COVID response, we teamed up with Direct Relief to support the Government of Nepal’s COVID vaccination capacity and build a facility able to appropriately store COVID vaccines. This quarter saw the completion of the plans and bidding process for the building and received all necessary governmental approvals. This progress is critically foundational towards making the overall effort possible and paves the way for building to commence.