HOW WE ACHIEVE CHANGE

WRA Malawi employs innovative and effective advocacy and accountability strategies that put women and girls at the center. Using our 2019-2022 Strategic Plan as a roadmap, we  educate and collaborate with  women and girls to demand their rights to reproductive, maternal, and newborn health;, influence decision makers; generate evidence for advocacy, including documenting citizen demand; create links between communities and government for action planning and change; convene stakeholders; and activate media and champions. These strategies, in-turn, result not only in positive policy changes, but also concrete improvements in the lives of Malawi’s women, girls, and their communities.  

CURRENT CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMS

WHAT WOMEN WANT CAMPAIGN (2018-ONGOING)

Igniting citizens and communities to demand their right to quality care is central to our campaigns and programs. The What Women Want campaign sparked a movement calling for policies, programs, and services to directly respond women and girls’ needs – as they define it. Women and girls have clearly articulated their needs – we’re delivering our promise for quality, equitable and dignified reproductive and maternal health care through enhancing resources, policies and accountability.   

The Global What Women Want campaign convened more than 350 partners to collectively ask over one million women and girls worldwide about their top priority for quality maternal and reproductive healthcare services. WRA Malawi was a major mobilizer of responses, surveying 84,058 women and girls across Malawi. The top five What Women Want requests in Malawi were: 1) respectful and dignified care, 2) confidentiality and privacy, 3) improved health, well-being, maternal, reproductive, or general health services, 4) water, sanitation, and hygiene and 5) timely and attentive care.

WRA Malawi’s currently funded programs focus on influencing policies, mobilizing resources, and strengthening accountability mechanisms to improve reproductive, maternal, and newborn health and ultimately achieve What Women Want demands.

OUR IMPACT:

WRA Malawi leveraged women’s top demands from What Women Want to propel numerous achievements:

• MIDWIFERY: WRA Malawi’s ongoing midwifery advocacy, in collaboration with midwifery associations and champions, has strengthened the midwifery workforce and forged leadership opportunities. Specifically, more than 700 midwives have been hired since 2018, and in 2020, the Ministry of Health established the position of Chief Midwifery Officer in Malawi’s central hospitals.
• FAMILY PLANNING: WRA Malawi and partners’ persistent advocacy, backed by WWW demands, led to a 6% increase in the 2020/2021 Family Planning national budget.
• RESPECTFUL AND DIGNIFIED CARE: The Ministry of Health endorsed the Respectful Maternity Care Charter
• QUALITY OF CARE: Top demands from What Women Want on respectful and dignified care, confidentiality and privacy and water, sanitation and hygiene were incorporated in the Ministry of Health’s Quality of Care Assessment Tool for Maternal and Newborn Health services. This means the tool now measures quality care as women themselves define it.
• RMNCH AS ESSENTIAL SERVICES IN COVID-19: WRA Malawi informed the Ministry of Health’s Guidelines for Maternal and Newborn Health Services Including Family Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic, ensuring women’s requests for respectful and dignified care and water, sanitation and hygiene would be non-negotiable during the pandemic.

 RESOURCES:

• What Women Want: Malawi
• The Summary of a Count of Bedside Midwives in Malawi