Kuboresha Afya Mitaani: Improving Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Outcomes for Vulnerable Women and Newborns in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

The Population Council-Kenya partnered with Jacaranda Health and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services to improve the quality of the ecosystem for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services in two informal settlements of Nairobi, Mathare North and Kawangware. Over a period of three years, the team worked with County and subcounty health managers to integrate typically siloed actors in the quality-of- care space-including women and their families, communities surrounding facilities, providers, health regulators, and actors in sanitation and air pollution-into a “Quality Ecosystem.” We targeted women and neonates in the informal settlements, associated households and the communities they live in to reach approximately 40,000 mothers over three years. As part of this effort, together with the county health department, we optimized and adopted the PROMPTS (Promoting Mothers through Pregnancy and Postpartum) digital tool- a free text- messaging platform that provides pregnant women and new mothers with a carefully designed sequence of behavioral nudge messages and a clinician-supported help desk to answer questions. Our endline assessment found that the PROMPTS digital tool increased women’s knowledge of pregnancy complications, and enhanced care-seeking behaviors.