In each of the episodes we have been discussing the different ways that the programme has strengthened the capacities of health workers, mainly midwives and nurses, to deliver high quality care, to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. In previous episodes, we have heard how data has been used in decision-making through the maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response approach.

We've also heard about pre-service training and teaching and how it has been improved so that nurses and midwives feel more competent and capable of step into their roles on the frontline. In this episode, we're going to be focused on in-service training.

We hear about real life examples where the programme’s revised approaches to mentorship and training have improved outcomes and saved lives, including an example from Dr. Shaban, who joined us straight out of theatre!

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Veronica Musiega - Advanced practice nurse (midwifery speciality), Vihiga County, Department of Health Services

Veronica is the County reproductive health coordinator for Vihiga county. She is a national trainer in EmONC as well as EmONC mentor. She facilitates training, mentorship, support supervision and co-ordination of EmONC activities in the county and at National level.

Veronica has trained MPDSR at National level and within Vihiga county and has planned, initiated and coordinated MPDSR activities at County, Subcounty, Facility and community level. Under her co-ordination, various fora and networks have been developed at sub county and county level to manage EmONC emergencies and address gaps in provision of EmONC services.

Veronica heads a team that performs county supportive supervision in EmONC, providing technical assistance and addressing gaps in service delivery; as well as developing work plans to improve on reproductive health.

She is the secretary to the county MPDSR committee and has led the team to compile Biannual MPDSR report which is disseminated at county level and contributes to the national MPDSR reports. In addition, Veronica has spearheaded the implementation of the MPDSR committee actions.

Sylvia Kimtai - Subcounty Reproductive Health Coordinator, Kapseret Subcounty, Department of Health Services, County Government of Uasin Gishu

Sylvia is a midwife, a national EmONC trainer and mentor, who has working in maternal and newborn health since 2008 to date. Currently, she coordinates reproductive health services in Kapseret subcounty.

She has facilitated over fifty EmONC and MPDSR training sessions in various parts of Kenya. She mentors a team of mentors across maternity units in the county who also mentor their colleagues with]]>This is the final episode of our mini-series, focusing on the programme Improving Quality of Maternal and Newborn Health in Kenya. This is an FCDO funded programme, the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, and it is led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

In each of the episodes we have been discussing the different ways that the programme has strengthened the capacities of health workers, mainly midwives and nurses, to deliver high quality care, to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. In previous episodes, we have heard how data has been used in decision-making through the maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response approach.

We've also heard about pre-service training and teaching and how it has been improved so that nurses and midwives feel more competent and capable of step into their roles on the frontline. In this episode, we're going to be focused on in-service training.

We hear about real life examples where the programme’s revised approaches to mentorship and training have improved outcomes and saved lives, including an example from Dr. Shaban, who joined us straight out of theatre!

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Veronica Musiega - Advanced practice nurse (midwifery speciality), Vihiga County, Department of Health Services

Veronica is the County reproductive health coordinator for Vihiga county. She is a national trainer in EmONC as well as EmONC mentor. She facilitates training, mentorship, support supervision and co-ordination of EmONC activities in the county and at National level.

Veronica has trained MPDSR at National level and within Vihiga county and has planned, initiated and coordinated MPDSR activities at County, Subcounty, Facility and community level. Under her co-ordination, various fora and networks have been developed at sub county and county level to manage EmONC emergencies and address gaps in provision of EmONC services.

Veronica heads a team that performs county supportive supervision in EmONC, providing technical assistance and addressing gaps in service delivery; as well as developing work plans to improve on reproductive health.

She is the secretary to the county MPDSR committee and has led the team to compile Biannual MPDSR report which is disseminated at county level and contributes to the national MPDSR reports. In addition, Veronica has spearheaded the implementation of the MPDSR committee actions.

Sylvia Kimtai - Subcounty Reproductive Health Coordinator, Kapseret Subcounty, Department of Health Services, County Government of Uasin Gishu

Sylvia is a midwife, a national EmONC trainer and mentor, who has working in maternal and newborn health since 2008 to date. Currently, she coordinates reproductive health services in Kapseret subcounty.

She has facilitated over fifty EmONC and MPDSR training sessions in various parts of Kenya. She mentors a team of mentors across maternity units in the county who also mentor their colleagues with the health facilities. She manages a WhatsApp forum/platform where EmONC mentors within Uasin Gishu county actively interact, share best practices and address challenges faced.

Sylvia provides technical support to other EmONC mentors both virtually and through onsite support supervisory visits to their health facilities. She also conducts support supervision in health facilities on maternal and newborn care including conducting periodic EmONC functionality assessments on performance of EmONC signal functions to address gaps in availability of services.

She is the Secretary to Sub county MPDSR committee and also member of the facility MPDSR Committees.

Sylvia is the custodian of EmONC training equipment in her county and ensures mentors access the equipment during mentorship.

Dr. Nassir Shaban - Resident Obstetrician Gyanaecologist, Msambweni County referral hospital, Kwale County.

Dr. Nassir was trained by LSTM eight years ago and since then has been collaborating with LSTM on various capacity strengthening projects focusing at improving Maternal and Neonatal Health. He has facilitated training of midwives, medical officers and consultants OBGY on Emergency Obstetrics and Neonatal Care (EmONC) ; as well as Advanced comprehensive obstetric surgical and anaesthesia skills.

Dr. Nassir’s biggest dream is to significantly contribute to reduction of maternal mortality and improve neonatal outcomes in his resource-constricted health institutions, something he works very hard to achieve through training and capacity strengthening amongst his colleagues and team players in health.

On matters of research, Dr. Nassir has a special interest. He has worked with LSTM towards publishing a couple of research papers on Maternal and Neonatal Health, latest one which will be featured in the upcoming Health Conference in South Africa in April 2023.

At the National level, Dr. Nassir has been involved in the revision of National EmONC training curriculum, development of EmONC mentorship package as well as development of the "Continuum of Care" package in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches that researchers apply to connect with communities and co-produce solutions to global health challenges.

The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as NTD’s, NCD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to community engagement and power dynamics.   

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.  

In each of the episodes, we have been discussing different ways that the programme has strengthened the capacities of health practitioners to deliver high quality of care, to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality.

This episode is the third of four and is focused on improving the quality of midwifery education in Kenya, which has been historically under invested and has huge variations in terms of quality, content and duration.

Evidence has suggested that if universal health coverage of midwifery delivered interventions was achieved, we could save up to 4.5 million mothers and babies per year by 2035. We know that globally nurses and midwives are really the leading providers of assistance during childbirth, and so the quality of their education is absolutely vital for the survival of mothers and their babies.

About our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Dr. Kelly Oluoch - KMTC Director, Kenya

Dr. Oluoch is experienced in training health professionals in the fields of pharmacy and strategic leadership and management of health systems. Rising from being a lecturer to head of department to principal of two campuses and he is now KMTC Director.

As part of making KMTC a recognisable brand globally, he is spearheading the search for foreign markets for its trainees with the initial cohort of 19 students having left for the UK in June this year.

He has a great interest in enabling a robust pharmaceutical regulatory framework and environment in Kenya.

Mr Benson Milimo - Midwifery Lecturer, Moi university, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Department of Midwifery & Gender

Benson has been involved in teaching, research and community service in midwifery education and works with the community and students every year for a period of six weeks to provide expertise to community health facilities, including midwifery services. Benson also guides students at undergraduate and postgraduate level to conduct research in midwifery and womens’ health.

Dr. Edna C. Tallam – Kimaiyo - Registrar and CEO, Nursing Council of Kenya

Edna Tallam is a global health champion and a national leader in transforming Kenya’s health systems, through the regulation of Nursing & Midwifery education and practice. Edna has been involved in the project in the spearheading review of the Nursing and Midwifery Syllabi, integrating emergency obstetrics and newborns care (EmONC), disseminating the syllabi and supporting capacity building of Midwifery lecturers and implementation research.

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches]]>This short mini-series focuses on sharing lessons learned from the programme Improving Quality of Maternal and Newborn health. This is a UK funded programme by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and is led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

In each of the episodes, we have been discussing different ways that the programme has strengthened the capacities of health practitioners to deliver high quality of care, to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality.

This episode is the third of four and is focused on improving the quality of midwifery education in Kenya, which has been historically under invested and has huge variations in terms of quality, content and duration.

Evidence has suggested that if universal health coverage of midwifery delivered interventions was achieved, we could save up to 4.5 million mothers and babies per year by 2035. We know that globally nurses and midwives are really the leading providers of assistance during childbirth, and so the quality of their education is absolutely vital for the survival of mothers and their babies.

About our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Dr. Kelly Oluoch - KMTC Director, Kenya

Dr. Oluoch is experienced in training health professionals in the fields of pharmacy and strategic leadership and management of health systems. Rising from being a lecturer to head of department to principal of two campuses and he is now KMTC Director.

As part of making KMTC a recognisable brand globally, he is spearheading the search for foreign markets for its trainees with the initial cohort of 19 students having left for the UK in June this year.

He has a great interest in enabling a robust pharmaceutical regulatory framework and environment in Kenya.

Mr Benson Milimo - Midwifery Lecturer, Moi university, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Department of Midwifery & Gender

Benson has been involved in teaching, research and community service in midwifery education and works with the community and students every year for a period of six weeks to provide expertise to community health facilities, including midwifery services. Benson also guides students at undergraduate and postgraduate level to conduct research in midwifery and womens’ health.

Dr. Edna C. Tallam – Kimaiyo - Registrar and CEO, Nursing Council of Kenya

Edna Tallam is a global health champion and a national leader in transforming Kenya’s health systems, through the regulation of Nursing & Midwifery education and practice. Edna has been involved in the project in the spearheading review of the Nursing and Midwifery Syllabi, integrating emergency obstetrics and newborns care (EmONC), disseminating the syllabi and supporting capacity building of Midwifery lecturers and implementation research.

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches that researchers apply to connect with communities and co-produce solutions to global health challenges.

The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as NTD’s, NCD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to community engagement and power dynamics.   

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.  

In this episode, we focus on a maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response approach.

MPDSR is an essential approach to monitoring quality improvement for mothers and babies. From the programme featured in this episode, those involved have learned that, whereas most maternal deaths are audited and there has been an improvement in the proportion perinatal deaths audited, there is a need to assess whether the audits have informed quality of care improvement for both mothers and newborns.

Acting on the recommendation agreed upon during committee meetings has been found to be an essential component of the response cycle. Having intense follow-up visits, short and focused learning meetings with targeted health care workers, are more likely to produce positive results. A strong process for auditing maternal and perinatal deaths has been established during the programme but a system to objectively assess the ‘Response’ from the MPDSR process is still required.

Dr. Serem describes the MPDSR mechanism;

“MPDSR is one of the key components on checking the quality of care for the mothers and the newborns, and in our country, for the last four years through the support of LSTM, we have done a lot of things. One is setting up the national MPDSR committee, chaired by the Director General of the Republic from the Ministry of Health, Republic of Kenya. In Kenya, we have 47 subnationals, which we are calling them counties. These are like the small governments of Kenya. We've set up, the committees in all the counties.

These committees have been very instrumental because they have been looking at the causes of death. In a nutshell, assessing, reviewing, auditing, what went wrong? What are these events?

We have therefore been in a position to give feedback, strengthen their committees. Once you strengthen the committees, they learn a lot”

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Dr Edward Serem MBCHB, OB/GYN (UON) - Head, Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya

Dr Edward Serem is an obstetrician gynaecologist and Head of the Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health Services, Ministry of Health, Kenya. Dr Serem has the overall responsibility of periodic National review of policies, guidelines, standard operating procedures, protocols, data analysis, research and technical assistance and building the capacity of health care workers at the sub-national level on reproductive health service provision. The Division played key roles in setting up the National MPDSR secretariat.

Dr Pamela Godia - Lecturer, Senior Technical Officer, Department Public and Global Health, University of Nairobi, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Dr Pamela Godia is a public...]]>In this mini-series, we are shining a spotlight on the programme Improving Quality of Maternal and Newborn Health. This is a UK funded programme by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and it is led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

In this episode, we focus on a maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response approach.

MPDSR is an essential approach to monitoring quality improvement for mothers and babies. From the programme featured in this episode, those involved have learned that, whereas most maternal deaths are audited and there has been an improvement in the proportion perinatal deaths audited, there is a need to assess whether the audits have informed quality of care improvement for both mothers and newborns.

Acting on the recommendation agreed upon during committee meetings has been found to be an essential component of the response cycle. Having intense follow-up visits, short and focused learning meetings with targeted health care workers, are more likely to produce positive results. A strong process for auditing maternal and perinatal deaths has been established during the programme but a system to objectively assess the ‘Response’ from the MPDSR process is still required.

Dr. Serem describes the MPDSR mechanism;

“MPDSR is one of the key components on checking the quality of care for the mothers and the newborns, and in our country, for the last four years through the support of LSTM, we have done a lot of things. One is setting up the national MPDSR committee, chaired by the Director General of the Republic from the Ministry of Health, Republic of Kenya. In Kenya, we have 47 subnationals, which we are calling them counties. These are like the small governments of Kenya. We've set up, the committees in all the counties.

These committees have been very instrumental because they have been looking at the causes of death. In a nutshell, assessing, reviewing, auditing, what went wrong? What are these events?

We have therefore been in a position to give feedback, strengthen their committees. Once you strengthen the committees, they learn a lot”

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Dr Edward Serem MBCHB, OB/GYN (UON) - Head, Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya

Dr Edward Serem is an obstetrician gynaecologist and Head of the Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health Services, Ministry of Health, Kenya. Dr Serem has the overall responsibility of periodic National review of policies, guidelines, standard operating procedures, protocols, data analysis, research and technical assistance and building the capacity of health care workers at the sub-national level on reproductive health service provision. The Division played key roles in setting up the National MPDSR secretariat.

Dr Pamela Godia - Lecturer, Senior Technical Officer, Department Public and Global Health, University of Nairobi, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Dr Pamela Godia is a public health specialist with vast experience in managing reproductive health programmes. Over the last five years Dr. Godia has been providing technical assistance to the National Ministry of Health Kenya in setting up a system of confidential enquiry in maternal deaths in Kenya and oversaw the production of the first ever Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Death (CEMD) report (2017) for Kenya. Dr. Godia has also overseen the production of the first National Annual Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response Report for Kenya (2021).

Ms Wabwire Scolastica - Program Officer, Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya

Wabwire Scolastica is a Field Epidemiologist with experience in disease surveillance, monitoring and evaluation and project management. Scolastica has an MSc. Field Epidemiology and MSc. Nursing Education. She has over 15 years’ experience as a nursing professional. Scolastica plays a leading role in coordinating Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) activities at the national level and sub-national in addition to overseeing the implementation of Maternal Newborn Health Quality of Care Standards, Research and Learning through capacity building at both national and sub-national levels. Scolastica is also responsible for reproductive health data management at national and sub-National levels.

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches that researchers apply to connect with communities and co-produce solutions to global health challenges.

The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as NTD’s, NCD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to community engagement and power dynamics.

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.

This episode will help us understand a bit more about the programme, and then we'll move on to focus on a Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine partnership with two Kenyan universities where they aim to train healthcare workers on advanced obstetric and anesthetic skills training.

The principal investigator, Professor Charles Ameh, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, outlines the programme for us;

"The programme in Kenya, which has run for the past five years has three main work streams;

One is on quality of care. The other one is on the pre-service education. Then we have in-service education, and then we have a cross cutting theme of implementation research.

We have supported the facility based reviews of maternal deaths so that we can learn from each maternal death of every woman that had an adverse outcome of how to improve the quality of care and then on the national level, we have instituted a robust system of confidential enquiries into maternal deaths to help us see patterns and key issues that can be picked up in terms of policy practice, training, and development of healthcare workers.

The systems in Kenya are strengthened in terms of providing that next generation of healthcare providers that can be confident and competent to address preventing maternal deaths, managing complications, and also learning from these incidences to continuously improve their quality of care. Furthermore, when we look at the medical schools, the postgraduate schools, their capacity to improve the quality of their research and disseminate this research at a national, international, and regional level has improved significantly with this programme."

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Prof. Charles Ameh - Head, Department for International Public Health & Leader Emergency Obstetric and Quality of Care (EmOC&QoC) Unit. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Prof. Charles Ameh, is a Professor in Global Health, a co-Director World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Maternal and Newborn Health, and Head International Public Health Department, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is also a member of the WHO Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response Technical Working Group, a member WHO Technical Advisory Group on Maternal Mortality and Maternal Cause of Death Estimation.

Prof. Ameh has an established international reputation in Emergency Obstetric Care, Antenatal and Postnatal capacity strengthening (undergraduate and postgraduate), Obstetric Early Warning Systems, MNH quality of care including Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response and Health System Strengthening in low-income countries. Prof. Ameh has substantial online teaching expertise and has published considerably in the field of global maternal health. He is an adjunct faculty at the...]]>This episode is the very first of four of a mini-series shining a spotlight on the programme Improving Quality of Maternal and Newborn Health.

This episode will help us understand a bit more about the programme, and then we'll move on to focus on a Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine partnership with two Kenyan universities where they aim to train healthcare workers on advanced obstetric and anesthetic skills training.

The principal investigator, Professor Charles Ameh, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, outlines the programme for us;

"The programme in Kenya, which has run for the past five years has three main work streams;

One is on quality of care. The other one is on the pre-service education. Then we have in-service education, and then we have a cross cutting theme of implementation research.

We have supported the facility based reviews of maternal deaths so that we can learn from each maternal death of every woman that had an adverse outcome of how to improve the quality of care and then on the national level, we have instituted a robust system of confidential enquiries into maternal deaths to help us see patterns and key issues that can be picked up in terms of policy practice, training, and development of healthcare workers.

The systems in Kenya are strengthened in terms of providing that next generation of healthcare providers that can be confident and competent to address preventing maternal deaths, managing complications, and also learning from these incidences to continuously improve their quality of care. Furthermore, when we look at the medical schools, the postgraduate schools, their capacity to improve the quality of their research and disseminate this research at a national, international, and regional level has improved significantly with this programme."

More about our guests:

Lucy Nyaga (Co-host) - Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kenya

Lucy is the Country Director, Liverpool School of Tropical medicine, in Kenya. She has a background in Medical Anthropology and Public Health with extensive experience in promoting implementation of research results into policy and practice with a special focus on maternal and neonatal health (MNH). With twenty years’ experience working in health programming, her experience and expertise in MNH has involved managing and implementing programmes that incorporate implementation research to inform effective programming and policy influence. Working with a range of organisations ranging from governments, academic and research institutions, UN agencies, and national & INGO, Lucy has led and contributed to key MNH research that has then led to policy influence in Eastern Africa.

Prof. Charles Ameh - Head, Department for International Public Health & Leader Emergency Obstetric and Quality of Care (EmOC&QoC) Unit. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Prof. Charles Ameh, is a Professor in Global Health, a co-Director World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Maternal and Newborn Health, and Head International Public Health Department, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is also a member of the WHO Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response Technical Working Group, a member WHO Technical Advisory Group on Maternal Mortality and Maternal Cause of Death Estimation.

Prof. Ameh has an established international reputation in Emergency Obstetric Care, Antenatal and Postnatal capacity strengthening (undergraduate and postgraduate), Obstetric Early Warning Systems, MNH quality of care including Maternal, Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response and Health System Strengthening in low-income countries. Prof. Ameh has substantial online teaching expertise and has published considerably in the field of global maternal health. He is an adjunct faculty at the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Nairobi, external examiner to Moi University Kenya and London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Prof. Ameh is also on the editorial board of several leading global Public Health journals. He has trained health workers and residents in obstetrics and gynaecology in emergency obstetric care training in over 15 countries in Africa and Asia.

Prof. Eunice Cheserem - Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. University of Nairobi.

Eunice has 30 years of teaching experience at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and is leading in the training of subspecialists in the field of Gynaecological Oncology. She uses research to enhance the capacity of upcoming gynaecologists and Obstetricians to improve best practice.

Dr Paul Nyongesa - Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret and Senior Lecturer, Dept of Reproductive Health. Moi University School of Medicine, Eldoret, Kenya

Dr. Paul Nyongesa is a consultant obstetrician/gynecologist with Clinical Duties in the Division of Reproductive Health at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and a senior lecturer at the department of Reproductive Health Moi University School of Medicine. He is a member of various professional organisations which include the Kenya Medical Association, Kenya Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance (MPDSR). He is also a National Maternal Mortality Data Assessor for Kenya. He helped write the first Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) for Kenya in 2017. He has published more than 30 articles on Maternal and Newborn Health in peer reviewed and reputable journals.

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about the methods and approaches that researchers apply to connect with communities and co-produce solutions to global health challenges.

The podcast covers wide ranging topics such as NTD’s, NCD’s, antenatal and postnatal care, mental wellbeing and climate change, all linked to community engagement and power dynamics.   

If you would like your own project or programme to feature in an episode, get in touch with producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.