Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Details for Mechanism ID: 17026
Country/Region: South Africa
Year: 2013
Main Partner: Mothers2mothers
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: Implementing Agency
Funding Agency: USAID
Total Funding: $3,209,469

The goal of mothers2mothers programme is Improved MNCH(PMTCT) Outcomes among HIV-positive pregnant women and new mothers. m2m will build the capacity of the South African Government to intitutionalise and scale up provision of PMTCT education and psychosocial support in public health facilities at district level. The Mentor Mother model will be ingetrated within the broader PMTCT/MNCH programme. The strategic result areas of this interventions are: (i) Quality mentorship and peer support systems for pregnant women, new mothers, their babies and male partners institutionalised and scaled-up by District Health Management Teams; (ii) Best practices and innovations generated at m2m model sites shared and scaled-up to improve client health outcomes and PMTCT service delivery in targeted districts. This will contribute to the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB (2012-2016) objectives to reduce HIV infections, mother to child transmission, HIV related maternal and infant mortality and increase maternal and child health outcomes. The program will target pregnant women, new mothers and infants. Through the Mentor Mother model, women living with HIV will be employed, trained and placed in health centres to work with clinical staff, providing PMTCT education and support to women to access comprehensive services. Focus will be in 7 Districts spread across several Provinces (Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Gauteng, North West, Free State) with 25 model sites designed as centres of excellence to provide for demonstrated learning and orientation to support capacity building of DHMTs. The sites will also serve as centres for operations research and model development for continued learning and enhancement of the Mentor Mother model.

Funding for Care: Adult Care and Support (HBHC): $250,000

In COP2013, m2m will aim to provide quality facility-based and community linked education and psychosocial support services to pregnant women, new mothers and their partners to promote and support uptake and full utilisation of HIV counselling and testing, treatment and related health services. In this way, services will contribute to strengthening Prevention with Positives approaches and improving health outcomes and optimsing the quality of life of clients and their families. Mentor Mothers, working in 100 sites (25 model directly funded through our USAID award and 75 through co-funders) will provide ongoing education and support to clients. The core activities will include one-on-one client suppport; couples education sessions; support groups and group health talks. This will be augmented by Active Client Follow-up to track client's progress through the PMTCT continuum of care to increase retention; Two-way referrals to HIV/TB treatment, reproductive health, nutrition and other support services as well as community-based care and support among others. m2m will aim to ensure quality service provision at the programme sites to contribute to modelling of District MMP sites and provide learning platforms for District Mentor Mothers and programme staff. The programme sites will be located in the following Districts: Amathole, Gert Sibande, Enhlanzeni, Nkangala, Cape Metro, Ethekwini, Ugu, Umgungundlovu, Bojanala, Capricorn, Mopani, Tshwane. However, District coverage may be revised depending on levels of sustained co-funding to support the additional 75 programme sites.

Funding for Care: TB/HIV (HVTB): $175,000

During this fiscal year, m2m Mentor Mothers will be trained on TB to ensure they have the relevant knowledge to provide education on TB to clients attending antenatal and postnatal care and PMTCT. TB education will be provided to clients through daily one-on-one and group health talks and support group sessions in the 100 programme sites targeted for COP 2013. Mentor Mothers, working in 100 sites (25 model directly funded through our USAID award and 75 through co-funders) will provide ongoing education and support to clients. However, to improve on the quality and impact of TB support services m2m will seek to integrate TB pre-screening as part of the package of TB support services. This will involve training of Mentor Mothers on TB pre-screening and formal client referrals, informed by National TB guidelines and standard operating procedures at facility level. Activities will involve leveraging and adaptation of existing pre-screening tools; formal referrral of clients and their families for screening and linkages to treatment programmes where required. m2m will aim to utilise successes and learnings from this initiative to provide technical assistance to Districts implementing the Mentor Mother programme to integrate a more comprehensive TB support package of services in their MMP sites, also providing in-service training to Mentor Mothers and MMP programme staff as required.

Funding for Biomedical Prevention: Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT): $2,784,469

In COP2013, mothers2mothers will work with the South African Government to build a sustainable and institutionalised Mentor Mother Programme (MMP), for integration of peer-based quality PMTCT education and psychosocial support services at the district level. m2m will implement 3 overarching key activities as follows: (i)m2m will provide technical assistance to the Department of Health PMTCT/MNCH Directorate(s) to develop a national and contexualised Provincial and District MMP through policy advisory and programme development technical support. m2m will provide technical support to SAG to develop a Framework for the MMP. A bottom-up approach will be employed to develop the capacity of District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) to implement the model, use lessons learned and scale-up from district level to culminate in an overarching National programme. The targeted Provinces are Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State and North West; (ii) Provide cutomised training, ongoing technical support, mentorship and supportive supervision to DHMTs and health facilities. Capacity building will be provided to Districts to develop and implement their MMP integration Workplans as a core component of their overal Annual Business Plans; (iii) Develop Mentor Mother model innovations to be tested in 25 model sites, adapted for scale-up with knowledge and skills transfer to DHMTs to roll-out in public health facilities. m2m will facilitate quality improvement and responsiveness of the MMP to support tracking of mother-baby pairs for improvement of client retention, as well as a broader scope of related health issues such as TB and infant nutrition. In COP 2013, m2m will identify priority model expansion initiatives to continously broaden the scope of health support services provided through the model, which will in turn inform the continued enhancement of the MMP under DHMTs. These will include (re)designing a cost effective, scalable mother-baby pair tracking method including use of mobile phone technology for routine data collection and tracking; developing and testing a facility-community referral support system for clients to ensure a continuum of care; and consolidating and broadening TB and NACS integration activities initiatied in COP 2012.

Cross Cutting Budget Categories and Known Amounts Total: $640,000
Gender: Gender Equality $500,000
Human Resources for Health $100,000
Motor Vehicles: Purchased $40,000
Key Issues Identified in Mechanism
Increasing women's access to income and productive resources
Child Survival Activities
Safe Motherhood
Tuberculosis
Family Planning