Conducting Operational Research to Identify Numbers and Rates, Determine Needs, and Integrate Services to Mitigate Morbidity and Mortality Among Internally Displaced Persons Affected by Emergencies.

Save The Children Federation, Inc., Westport CT

Investigators

Abstract

Maternal and Newborn Survival among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Somalia: A study to measure the feasibility and effectiveness of the Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings Abstract Somalia has the longest running humanitarian crisis lasting for over 2 decades. As of February 2015, 1.1 million people out of the total estimated Somali population of 12.3 million are IDPs and of thee 130,000 are settled in Puntland. Somalia has the 2nd highest Neonatal Mortality Rate in the world (46/1000 live births/yr), Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 850/100,000 live births/year, and under five mortality (146/1000 live births/year). Six Maternal and Child Health (MCH) facilities provide services to the 69,000 IDPs in Bosaso. The MCH facilities provide antenatal care, postnatal care and delivery services however none of the MCH facilities provides newborn care services. Save the Children in collaboration with UNICEF, CDC, and other partners has developed a newborn health in humanitarian settings field guide as a package to facilitate the integrated delivery of newborn are in primary health care and reproductive health programs. We are proposing to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings Field Guide in displaced person camps in Puntland, Somalia. The study will measure effectiveness using before and after comparison in the intervention group and comparison between intervention and control clusters. Systematic documentation of change in systems, program inputs (type, quantity and cost), and processes will be done to assess feasibility. The results of the study will inform health programming strategies of Save the Children, Ministry of Health and partner agencies in Puntland and Somalia and the wider humanitarian community.