Jacaranda Successfully Scale Government Partnerships supported by EfD funding
Jacaranda Health delivers solutions through government hospitals, which makes the partnership with county and national stakeholders critical. They secure partnerships and commitments from national and county health departments to promote quality healthcare while utilizing low-cost, high- impact health innovations. A central tenet of their partnership with the government is to eventually transition ownership of Jacaranda solutions to county health system managers. Jacaranda measure ownership by tracking cost-share or cost-transition. They ask counties to use their health budgets to pay for the launch and operations of programs. This is done by aligning with County Annual Work Plans (AWPs), which in turn allows counties to recognize Jacaranda Health solutions as part of their annual strategic activities. This approach has been very successful, especially for the EmONC mentorship program where Jacaranda have seen different counties budget for their in-facility training methods. After seeing improvements in health facility indicators, several County reproductive health coordinators (RHC) have recommended Jacaranda programs to other RHCs during their workshops and midwifery conferences.
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Engaged 18/47 counties, have formally partnered with 15 counties and are in conversations with another 3 counties. These are the most populous counties representing 60% of the nation’s births
• Most of our partner counties confirmed the inclusion of PROMPTS and mentorship in their Annual Work Plans
• Counties have contributed to the cost of implementing Jacaranda programs, achieving a 60% cost share in 2020.
CHALLENGE
COVID-19 and the end of significant donor-funded Maternal and Neonatal Health initiatives have tightened county budgets and Jacaranda have been working with county leaders to think about prioritization of low-cost/high impact activities (not just Jacaranda programs) as a means of maintaining maternal and newborn health outcomes.