Community engagement to improve maternal and neonatal health in East-Central Region, Uganda:

Abstract

This study is about community based maternal/newborn care through included formation of “Local Motorcycle (Boda-boda) Transport System” (LBTS) with the local boda-boda riders, Box saving, and the “Mama – Boda-boda Transport Connect” targeting a set of mothers, community health workers and boda-boda riders with the aim of increasing access to health facility care. Stakeholder analysis was undertaken to assess and map stakeholders’ interests, influence/power and position in relation to the interventions; their views regarding the success and sustainability; and how this research can influence policy formulation in the country. The study used an open 2 arm cluster non-randomized control trial study design; with an intervention and control groups from communities with the selected health facilities as the units of non-randomization. Community engagement was done in eight sub counties. Four sub counties were for intervention arm and other four sub counties for the control arm. Community engagements were in form of dialogue/community meetings and focus group discussions (FGDs). The analysis revealed that most of the stakeholders at the community highly supported the proposed integrated maternal newborn care package. At least 83.4% of the mothers in the intervention arm used boda-boda riders compared to 50.9% in the control arm in the post intervention. The community concluded that the proposed interventions should ensure active involvement of local stakeholders in the implementation of the projects so that they can move from being passive supporters to active drivers of the work in Uganda. Research to policy translation, therefore, is required with mutual trust, continued dialogue and engagement of the researchers, implementers and policy makers to enable scale up.