Mozambique

Strengthening Primary Health Care and Nutrition Services to Reach the Poorest 

Government Contact

Dr. Saozinha Agostinho

Director of Planning, Ministry of Health, Mozambique

The Challenge 

Mozambique has achieved substantial reductions in maternal, under-five, and neonatal mortality rates. However, progress has been uneven and limited for the poorest populations in rural areas. The Government of Mozambique is leading an effort with the help of the GFF partnership to ensure equitable access to services. 

The GFF Partnership Response  

Mozambique’s five-year Investment Case prioritizes actions to strengthen access to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition services in high-burden districts in ten provinces. The GFF partnership is co-financing the Investment Case through the Primary Health Care Strengthening Program with specific emphasis on results, quality, and access to essential primary health care services, as well as data collection improvements and monitoring, among others.  

The Result 

With support from the GFF partnership, the Government has managed to improve services by increasing spending in underserved provinces to hire and train more health staff and community health workers, increase the availability of essential drugs in primary care facilities. This has increased institutional deliveries, and this is expected to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths. For example, the share of births that occurred in health facilities reached 80 percent, a number that exceeded the 2018 goals. In addition, key nutrition personnel were trained and the Nutrition Intervention Package was rolled out in the eight highest-burden provinces resulting in 3,609,078 additional children receiving basic nutrition services between 2017-2018. The Government is building on this progress as an entry point for broader health systems reform.

More information on how Mozambique achieved results are available on the latest 2018-2019 GFF Annual Report.