Liberia

Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Liberia ranks 162 out of 169 countries on the Human Development Index. The Liberia National Red Cross Society (LNRCS), supported by the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, seeks to improve the overall health and resiliency of the Liberian population, specifically aiming to reduce maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality.

Reaching over 38,976 beneficiaries in the counties of Bomi, Gbarpolu and Grand Gedeh, the programme will intensify efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 through the delivery of proven, high-impact, cost-effective interventions, with a complementary focus on improving illness-prevention and health-seeking behaviours for mothers, newborns and children.

The ultimate outcome is a sustained reduction in maternal, newborn and under-five mortality and morbidity through three intermediate outcomes:

1. Improved quality of Ministry of Health Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) services.
2. Increased community-level use of MNCH services and preventative practices, including food security planning.
3. Improved LNRCS role in supporting the Ministry of Health to deliver community-level MNCH services.

In line with the latest research, the LNRCS, supported by CRC, will assist the Ministry of Health to roll out its newly expanded integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) approach using general Community Health Volunteers and Trained Traditional Midwives as part of its primary-level health intervention strategy.

Ministry of Health staff, Red Cross Community Health Volunteers and their supervisors, as well as LNRCS facilitators will be trained in iCCM protocols and minimum intervention packages appropriate to their intervention level to recognize critical-case signs for malaria, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection; and to support maternal and neonatal care.