A high-profile partnership focusing on maternal and child health, with $30M program funding to implement 3-year programs across 4 African countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zambia, with the potential to expand. The program demonstrates the power of leveraging partnerships and active global members to strengthen community healthcare systems so that local communities have access to quality healthcare. 

Program deliverables:

·        Reduce severe disease and death from malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea, the top killers of children under age 5, in the target communities with a focus on vulnerable populations.

·        Build Capacity of Community Health Workers (CHWs) to support Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM)

·        Strengthen nationally led, integrated and sustainable health systems through improving quality and access.

·        Improve women's and girls' health at every stage of their lives and seek to increase child survival rates.

·        Establish Rotary as a convener of strategic partners and resources.

·        Position Rotary members as facilitators and advocates at the community level and include women in all levels of governance.

·        Establish a platform for collective action that is ready to grow beyond the initial set of selected countries. 

Potential partners:

As the challenge is developed, Rotary expects to have more global and local organizations join the partnership. This partnership can be at the program level with each country team or at the executive level adding support to the funding structure, healthcare, and community healthcare worker advocacy. Some of the potential partnerships could extend to UNICEF, USAID, PMI, PATH, CHAI, and local organizations who are well poised to support long-term, sustainable change. We trust and want to help facilitate that The Rotary members working as part of country teams will determine the best organizations to work with to implement their strategy. Potential roles range from a full funding partner to functioning as technical support in the form of training and certification of CHWs and validation of monitoring and evaluation processes. 

2025 update:

Programs in Nigeria and Zambia began implementation on 1 September 2024 and in Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique on 1 December 2024. Rotary is currently working alongside local health authorities to finalize project locations and acquire staff to support the programs in each country. Progress reports will be shared annually.

Project leads:

John Hewko, CEO, Rotary International

Dr. Nyreese Castro-Espadas, Area of Focus Manager, Disease Prevention and Treatment/Maternal and Child Health