Evaluating the impact of mother and child health (MCH) services at village level: a survey in Tanzania, and lessons for elsewhere

Abstract

An evaluation has been carried out of the impact at village level of seven Mother and Child Health (MCH) programmes on problems of health and nutrition in Tanzania. The evaluation highlighted the problem of shortage of base-line data in attempting to measure the impact of programmes quantitatively. The results obtained indicate that apart from immunization coverage, ranging from 70% for BCG problems to 30% for measles, the programmes were having limited impact on the principal problems health and nutrition problems of mothers and children. The evaluation emphasises the need to move from the package approach to MCH to programmes based on a more objective assessment of the priority problems in a specific area, and on a realistic assessment of community awareness of their health problems.