The Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained Program
The Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained Program
Highlights
Across 14 regions, ACCESS helped reach more than 4 million people with COVID-19 messages and vaccination information through social and mass media dissemination.
Since 2018, we have reached more than 1.5 million regular users of family planning and helped more than 450,000 women complete antenatal care.
ACCESS helped empower community health volunteers to test more than 1.3 million children for malaria and treat more than 400,000 children with first-line malaria treatment.
Overview
Through the Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained (ACCESS) program, we continue our support to the Government of Madagascar in accelerating sustainable health impact and strengthening the Ministry of Public Health’s stewardship of the health sector. The ACCESS program works to ensure person-centered, quality primary health care services are sustainably available and accessible to all Malagasy communities in the program’s target regions, that local health systems function effectively to support quality service delivery, and that the Malagasy people sustainably adopt healthy behaviors and social norms. ACCESS supports the Ministry in improving the quality of care provided by community health volunteers, health centers, and district hospitals through approaches that include low-dose high frequency training and supportive supervision, continuous quality assurance cycles, e-learning, improved data use for decision making, and enhanced supply chain systems.
In close partnership with the Government of Madagascar and its local partners, MSH is conducting activities in 78 districts across 14 regions, home to more than 16 million people. The program is also providing comprehensive support to the country’s COVID-19 response plan.
We Did It Ourselves: How Localized Efforts Have Transformed Family Planning Services in Madagascar’s Highland Regions
In Madagascar, family planning faces significant cultural and logistical challenges. Community health workers play a crucial role in dismantling taboos and bringing care closer to the patient while still handling each situation with sensitivity and respect.