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 The Skilled Care Initiative (SCI) used a rigorous methodology to evaluate the availability and quality of skilled care in the intervention districts, its financial and cultural accessibility, and changes in use of skilled care over time. The pre-test, post-test, quasi-experimental design included the following components:
- Facility assessments in the intervention and comparison districts to collect information on the quality, availability, and utilization of maternal health services.
- Household surveys covering a random sample of households in each district to collect information on the use of skilled care at delivery, as well as knowledge, attitudes, and care-seeking behaviors during pregnancy and childbirth.
FCI also gathered information from Qualitative Community Assessments about community members’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to skilled care to develop country-specific behavior change communication strategies.
Evaluating the Skilled Care Initiative: A Comprehensive Strategy describes the SCI evaluation strategy as well as the process of developing a unique set of evaluation tools for appraising the availability and quality of skilled maternity care and for measuring knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to skilled care. Download (518 KB)
Tools
- Facility Survey Tools
- Household Survey Tools
- Qualitative Community Assessment Tools
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Between 2003 and 2005, FCI worked with Ministries of Health in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Tanzania to improve the quality and availability of maternity care, improving services for thousands of women. Through an ambitious research effort, FCI evaluated and documented key strategies for increasing skilled care during childbirth. 
This flipchart focuses on care during pregnancy, delivery, and the post-partum period.
