Population Council Research that makes a difference

Like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana suffers from high maternal mortality and morbidity due partly to high rates of unwanted fertility and unsafe abortion and relatively low use of modern contraception. Although the government of Ghana has made impressive gains in recent years, the country’s maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high at 451 deaths per 100,000 live births. In an effort to address this challenge, the Population Council has been engaged in a project since 2006 to reduce unwanted fertility and make comprehensive abortion care (CAC) accessible.

The goals of this initiative, called Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (R3M), are to:

• Support the government of Ghana in achieving its contraceptive prevalence goal of 39 percent by 2015 by making contraceptives—including long-acting and permanent methods—and CAC routinely available and utilized at all levels of the public and private health service delivery system; and
• Reduce mortality and morbidity due to unsafe abortion in three focus regions, thus contributing to Ghana's achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5 (improving maternal health).
  
  

In 2010, the Council received a two-year follow-on grant to extend R3M activities. The Council’s role in this second phase of the program centers on providing technical and financial support for improving the Ghana Health Service's health information management system, coordinating activities of R3M partners and reporting on progress and accomplishments, renovating identified health facilities for improved provision of high-quality services, conducting small-scale operations research studies to guide program activities, and leading the development of an advocacy strategy to support program efforts. The program has successfully provided technical assistance in training midlevel providers (midwives) in the provision of CAC services, supported the country’s contraceptive commodity security drive, supplied essential equipment needed for family planning and CAC services, and constructed two reproductive health Centers of Excellence to help in the further development of the country’s health providers.

The R3M program has provided financial and technical resources and an enabling environment to significantly expand women's access to modern family planning and comprehensive abortion care services, which will assist in the realization of MDG 5.