JHPIEGO TrainerNews™ |
JHPIEGO Holds First Francophone MAQ
Exchange in Haiti
(June 2003)
JHPIEGO's Training in Reproductive Health Program, in collaboration with Family Health International (FHI), conducted a Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Exchange in Haiti from 19-21 May 2003. The 3-day workshop, held outside of Port au Prince at Moulin Sur Mer, was the first MAQ Exchange to be conducted in French. The goal of the Exchange was to share best practices and lessons learned in other countries, to learn about the participants' experiences in Haiti, and to work with these participants to address some of the quality and access issues they currently face.
The Exchange focused on best practices in the following topic areas: contraceptive technology, birth spacing, client-centered communication, postabortion care, adolescent RH, focused antenatal care, transfer of learning, infection prevention, prevention of HIV/AIDS, and integration of family planning (FP) and HIV/sexually transmitted infection services. As a complementary activity, the local World Health Organization (WHO) representative introduced the Managing Complications of Pregnancy and Childbirth manual developed by WHO and JHPIEGO and recently translated into French. Each participant was given a copy of the manual and other key FP/RH (reproductive health) materials in French (e.g., the Transfer of Learning [Intrah/PRIME and JHPIEGO/TRH], Preservice Implementation Guide [JHPIEGO/TRH], and the Essentials of Contraceptive Technology [Population Information Program, JHU/CCP]).
Exchange participants included both public and private sector institutional program managers from Haiti's nine departments and two subdepartments; the Director of Reproductive Health from the Ministry of Public Health and Population; Ministry departmental directors; and representatives from the USAID mission, USAID/Washington, and Management Sciences for Health/Haiti. A team of local experts and cooperating agency facilitators--including local and international staff and consultants from JHPIEGO, FHI, Intrah/PRIME, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Advance Africa, and Population Services International--pooled their expertise to conduct the highly collaborative and interactive Exchange.
To help with application of the best practices learned in the workshop, participants developed a series of simple, practical, and realistic activities that could personally apply at their own institutions. These activities do not require additional funding and are possible to achieve by the participants themselves within a few months.
The MAQ Exchange is a process of collecting, disseminating, and applying best practices aimed at increasing access to and quality of voluntary FP/RH services. Haiti MAQ Exchange participants will be followed up by e-mail within a few weeks after the workshop to see how they are progressing with their focused applications. Four months later, TRH will survey each participant to track the progress of their focused applications and evaluate the short-term results of the Exchange.
For more information about the MAQ Exchange, contact Chris Davis at cdavis@jhpiego.net