The Laos Maternal Child Health & Nutrition Activity (LMCHN)

The Laos Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Program (LMCHN) works in-hand with the Ministry of Health to support communities in 24 districts across five provinces to provide accessible, high-quality health and nutrition services to children, adolescents, and women. LMCHN employs a focused strategy to deliver life-saving interventions and supports all levels of the health system to provide high-quality antenatal care, emergency obstetric care, essential newborn care, and childhood immunizations, while strengthening the clinical competency of provincial and district staff. JSI launched a health facility assessment to identify gaps in service readiness and health information systems, informing program improvements. The program bolsters health leader capacity, implementing leadership, management, and governance (LMG) courses across all five provinces to improve local managers' ability to prioritize reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition needs. Further, LMCHN’s model mentor family approach embeds behavioral sciences to understand barriers and enhance accessible care use through a model mentor family approach. The LMCHN project is led by JSI and implemented in partnership with PATH and World Education, Inc.