Project Title

Quality of Care for Maternal and Newborn Health with Focus on 5S-KAIZEN-TQM Country
Country

Ghana
Client

Ghana Ministry of Health (GMOH), Ghana Health Service (GHS) 
Period

June, 2022 to January,2024 

Position

Project expert on Maternal and Child Health 

Type of Service

 Technical Cooperation

SDGs
Photo 



Outline  The government of Ghana has been striving to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC)*. So far, there are some improvements in the rate of delivery by the skilled childbirth attendants, attendance of antenatal and postnatal clinics, immunization rate of children and so forth. Consequently, the mortality rate of mothers and children decreased by half from 1990. Despite these positive results, under-five and maternal mortality ratios remain still high at 52 per thousand live births, 310 per 100,000 live births (the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey) respectively. In 2016 National Healthcare Quality Strategy (NHQS) 2017-2021 was formulated. To implement this strategy, Quality Management Department was established in GMOH in 2018, and the guideline for National Healthcare Quality Strategy was launched by Ghana Health Service (GHS) in 2019. It is acknowledged that there are needs of more training and financial support for full-scale implementation of this guideline. Therefore, the Government of Ghana requested JICA for a project, namely Quality of Care for Maternal and Newborn Health with Focus on 5S-KAIZEN-TQM. It is expected to improve the quality of MCH service at health facilities through the project. This project has been implemented in 4 regions such as Ashanti, Northern, Greater Accra and Volta. The activities will be 1) Ghana Quality of Care Standards with focus on maternal, newborn and child health are practiced, 2) Quality improvement activities at national, regional, district, sub-district and community levels of the health system are practiced with the implementation of 5S-KAIZEN-TQM, 3) Capacity of quality improvement of continuum of care for maternal and newborn is strengthened in Ashanti Region. 4) Referral and counter referral of mothers and newborns are practiced and strengthened by system improvement at regional to CHPS level. Ultimately this project is expected to contribute to improvement of care of mothers and newborns in targeted regions.

*Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is where “everyone can receive adequate quality health care services, when needed, at a manageable cost.”