On 16thJanuary, 2016, Co-Project Directors Dr. Cheryl Moyer and Dr. John Williams hosted the second meeting of the PreMAND Project Steering Committee at the NHRC in Navrongo. The Steering Committee Meeting was open to all project staff and was attended by the entire field implementation team. The District Directors of health services from the East Mamprusi, Sissala East and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality were also invited to the meeting.

The Director of the Centre, Dr. Abraham Oduro welcomed members of the steering committee and the district directors and others who were present to observe the proceedings. He used the opportunity to explain to participants the mandate of the Centre which is to conduct systematic research into health problems facing Ghana and in particular the northern ecological belt with the aim of guiding decision-making and policy development within the health sector. He expressed his gratitude to the Regional and District Directors of health services for making time to attend and for the support they have provided the PreMAND project since its commencement a year ago.

Presentations were made by the project team on various topics which included: The overview of the project, administrative and field activities carried out since the commencement of the study a year ago and preliminary findings from the data collect so far. The fieldworkers were also given the opportunity to share their field experiences with the committee members. The challenges they presented included the following: Frustrations from tracing respondents due to bad roads, poor contact information, temporary migration, or chronic absence from home during visits.

Others were poor completion of screening forms by volunteers and health staff, reluctance on the part of respondents to give detailed information on the circumstances surrounding death, and frequent replacement of health staff either due to transfers or routine rotations.

The Chairman of the Steering Committee, Prof. Cyril Engmann who led the discussion after the various presentations tasked participants not to focus on the numbers emanating from the research work so far, but to think about the end users. He charged members of the steering committee to think outside the box and discuss issues that would help the project team to achieve the aims and objectives of the project. Various issues were raised by the steering committee members and were adequately addressed by the team members of the project. The committee members also gave various suggestions to help improve on the activities of the project.

In his closing remarks, the project Co-director, Dr. John Williams thanked the chairman of the steering committee Prof. Cyril Engman, the Regional Directors and the District Directors of health services for attending the meeting. He was equally grateful to Dr. Cheryl Moyer and other staff of the project for their inputs and the efforts being put at ensuring the success of the project.

Brief Description of Project
  Title: Preventing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality in Rural Northern Ghana
Every year, many women die from pregnancy-related causes, and many babies also die before they reach 1 month of age. The medical causes of such deaths are very well known, but the social and cultural factors that contribute to the deaths are not well known. The aim of this study therefore, is to identify social and cultural factors influencing maternal and neonatal mortality and near-misses in four districts (East Mamprusi, Sissala East, Kassena-Nankana West and Kassena-Nankana Municipality) in northern Ghana and use the findings to address community-specific needs.

The study specifically aims to achieve the following objectives:

• To improve understanding of maternal and neonatal deaths through the implementation of social autopsy and near-miss assessments;
• To utilize geographic technology to combine the identified trends contributing to maternal and neonatal deaths and near-misses with locational data to make the results more actionable for communities, government leaders, and the donor community; and
• To engage community members in programming tailored to address the challenges featured in their specific maternal and neonatal profile, as a means to locally sourcing and testing potential programmatic responses
• The project involves three discrete phases: the verbal and social autopsy and near-miss assessment phase, the geocoding and visualization phase and the community feedback phase. The duration of the project is three years (September 11, 2014 – September 10, 2017).

Project Steering Committee
The project is being assisted by a Project Steering Committee, consisting of experts in the field and maternal and neonatal health and local stakeholders from the northern regions of Ghana and the Ghana Health Service. Steering Committee members include:

• Prof. Cyril Engmann: Global Program Leader / Director, Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition, PATH. He is the chair of the steering committee
• Dr. Jacob Mahama (Northern Regional Director of health services)
• Dr. Kofi Issah (Upper East Regional Director of health services)
• Dr. Winfred Ofosu (Upper West Regional Director of health services)
• Dr. Abraham Oduro: MBChB, MSc, PhD, Director, Navrongo Health Research Centre.
• Dr. Gloria Quansah-Asare: MBChB, MPH, Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service.
• Mrs. Mary-Stella Adapesa: MA, District Director of Health Services, Kassena-Nankana West.
• Dr. Abraham Hodgson, MD, PhD, former Director of the Navrongo Health Research Centre and he is currently the Director of the Ghana Health Service’s Research and Development Division (RDD).

The role of the Steering Committee and its members is to:

• Provide feedback and guidance on project activities;
• Advise on any project challenges;
• Dr. Kofi Issah (Upper East Regional Director of health services)
• Support stakeholder engagement;
• Serve as advocates of the project to colleagues and members of their constituencies;
• Share their knowledge of maternal and neonatal health issues and programming to maximize the project’s success.