Duration: 2011-2013
Budget: 500.000
“Banja la Mtsogolo” (BLM) is a Malawian NGO working around sexual and reproductive health. With this contribution the Government of Flanders wants to help reduce the maternal mortality rate and support the combat against HIV/AIDS.
Duration and budget
Flanders earmarks 500,000 euros for the BLM programme which will run from 2011 to 2013.
Problem definition
Malawi is facing countless challenges in the field of health. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is growing, as a result of which more children are orphaned. The mortality rate among pregnant women and children under the age of five is alarming as well. As this is combined with an explosive annual population growth of almost 3%, family planning should receive the necessary attention. The lack of good information, in combination with poverty, makes an overall approach advisable.
Practical implementation
Family planning is one of the priorities within the general health policy of Malawi. Ultimately, family planning has three different objectives which are all interrelated. First of all, this plan is to decrease the population growth. Other main action points are to reduce the maternal mortality rate and to fight HIV/AIDS. Finally, during the practical development, attention is mainly devoted to methods that are effective among the poorest groups of the rural population.
The Malawian organisation Banja la Mtsogolo (BLM) has a network of 31 family planning centres throughout Malawi. In addition, it has 262 so-called outreach centres. These centres make sure that the geographical scope of the actions can be extended. Finally, BLM is applying some sort of franchising concept, in which private initiatives offering similar services are given a quality mark (BlueStar certificate). In this way a guaranteed and controlled high-quality service can be provided.
Partner
Banya La Mtsogolo (BLM)