USAID Momentum: Saving Moms and Babies

Context

Each year, Indonesia loses more than 9,500 mothers and 70,000 newborns to preventable deaths. Using evidence and best practices, the United States and Indonesia are improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, helping communities thrive.

All women and children deserve to have a healthy life, regardless of where they live. Maternal and newborn deaths in Indonesia remain high despite decades of investment, with regional disparities in access to and quality of care contributing to the ongoing crisis. Serious breakthroughs are needed for the Government of Indonesia to achieve its national goals for healthier moms and babies.

MOMENTUM

MOMENTUM is a suite of projects that aims to accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity. Through MOMENTUM, USAID partners with Indonesia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to scale up proven approaches to improving maternal and newborn health outcomes and strengthening Indonesia’s health system. The program’s goal is to reduce preventable deaths among mothers and babies at public and private health care facilities. It aims to achieve this by improving the access and quality of health services in six provinces where maternal and newborn death rates are high: North Sumatra, Banten, DKI Jakarta, East Java, South Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara. Active across 47 districts in six provinces, the program supports more than 130 hospitals and 600 primary health centers.

MOMENTUM supports the MOH strategy to reduce maternal and newborn mortality by:

Enhancing provider capacity to deliver and continually improve routine and emergency maternal and newborn care services;
Improving health data and increasing its use in decision-making;
Improving referral networks that deliver timely services;
Increasing community engagement in maternal and newborn care;
Engaging the public and private sectors, and integrating both systems to increase service continuity and efficiencies;
Strengthening government capacity to effectively oversee public and private health care facilities;
Developing a sustainable, replicable, and scalable model for reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths nationally through better care; and
Strengthening integrated primary health care.

Results

Through MOMENTUM, USAID aims to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths by at least 20 percent at public and private health facilities within the program’s working areas. Through its second year of implementation, MOMENTUM has:

Supported local governments of all 47 districts governments in six provinces (North Sumatra, DKI Jakarta, Banten, East Java, South Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara) to strengthen district planning and budgeting for improved maternal and newborn health;
Rolled out a quality improvement program in 167 hospitals and 422 primary healthcare facilities, to improve the quality of care for mothers and newborns;
Facilitated an agreement between public and private health facilities in 14 districts to establish a referral network of hospitals and primary health facilities, allowing mothers and newborns to access the life saving care they need.