1. DR. ABDALLAH IBRAHIM, CPH School of Public Health University of Ghana Post-doc Coordinator – Accelerate Project

2. Project Title  Accelerating progress towards attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 in Ghana through basic health systems functioning strengthening (Accelerate Project)  Project Duration: 2011 - 2015

3. Accelerate Project - Ghana  Accelerate involves six PhD researchers in three disciplines, namely:  Clinical Epidemiology,  Medical Anthropology,  Health Policy & Health Systems  The PhD researchers focusses on health care improvements to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in Ghana.

4. Accelerate Project – Ghana/Netherlands Team

5. The Accelerate Project  Explore “how” and “why” clinical decision making for maternal and newborn care by frontline providers (doctors, clinical, public and community health nurses and midwives) is done in the health system  Explore what interventions would be most appropriate to support and improve the quality of clinical care decision making.

6. Accelerate Project - Progress  Project is currently at a “mixed-stage”, including:  Completed data collection  Completed draft manuscripts  Data analyses  Peer-reviewed article publications in:  BMC  PlosOne  Health Policy and Planning  Health Research Policy and Systems

8. Sample Progress of (Accelerate) PhD studies StudyShort title Study design (data source) OutcomeStatistical methodProgress so far Study I Risk factors for neonatal mortality Cross sectional (DHS)Neonatal mortality Multilevel logistic regression Published Study II Neonatal data validation Routine hospital dataData accuracy Error rate & % of missing data estimation Published Study IIIRisk factors for LBWCross sectional (DHS)Low birth weight Multilevel logistic regression Published Study IV Trends in childhood mortality: impacts & challenges of health programs Longitudinal study (DHS) Trends in childhood mortality Trend analysis & Poisson regression Completed Study V Effect of maternal health insurance status on utilization of the continuum of care Cross sectional (DHS) Antenatal, Skilled delivery and postnatal care utilization Logistic regressionCompleted Study VI Variations in neonatal mortality across 49 Sub-Saharan Africa countries Cross sectional (World Health Organization & World Bank) Variation in neonatal mortality Control chart, and spatial analysis Completed Study VIIPrediction model for stillbirth Hospital dataStillbirthLogistic regressionData quality check & analysis

9. Accelerate Project Stakeholders  National level  Ghana Health service  Ministry of Health  Sub-national and Facility level  Health care centers  Frontline health workers (Nurses, doctors, midwives)  District health managers  Individual level  Pregnant women  Stakeholders are involved at all levels

10. Stakeholder engagement strategies  Accelerate researchers have used various methods to engage the key stakeholders in their research.  They include:  Ethnography  Individual meetings  Dialogues

11. Key research findings Accelerate is advancing for stakeholder actions

12. Findings Community socioeconomic deprivation positively associated with neonatal death regardless of individual characteristics

13. Findings Dwelling in rural area, community poverty level, illiteracy level, safe water coverage & Community healthcare access increased the risk of having LBW infant

14. KT Challenges in Accelerate  KT-related challenges in Accelerate incliude differences in progress/timeline among the researchers  Difference in timeline impedes identifying and packaging an integrated project message

15. KT Products generated or accomplished  Activities generated or accomplished under Accelerate  Policy briefs  Shared findings at meetings  Presentations and poster contest at conferences  Additional KT products/activities planned  Stakeholder dissemination with KTNet-Africa  Media products

17. Support from KTNet-Africa

18. The End  Questions  Comments  Discussion