Marie Stopes International - Public Sector Strengthening Study

Project Timeline: 2O25

About MSI Reproductive Choices

MSI works across 36 countries and six continents, supporting over 94,OOO women and girls to access reproductive healthcare — including abortion and contraception — every day. With the support of their partners and donors around the world, MSI opens doors, advocates for change, and strengthens public and private sector provision of reproductive healthcare.

Brief

MSI’s Public Sector Strengthening (PSS) programme supports government-owned health facilities through a continuous process of improvement, working in partnership with governments at the community, facility, and systems levels to strengthen both demand and service delivery. This study aims to elicit new understanding about the long-term impact and sustainability of MSI’s PSS strategy. Drawing on a mixed-methods design, the study will investigate how the public sector site transition process is being implemented and the impacts of the PSS approach with the aim of understanding the long-term efficacy of MSI’s Public Sector Strengthening mode.

What We Did

We focused on the qualitative research component of the study in North-Western Province, Zambia. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with community health workers, facility-level healthcare providers, facility-level managers, district PSS supervisors, Ministry of Health officials, and MSI staff responsible for PSS implementation. The interviews focused on issues of impact on sustainability; perceived effectiveness of MSI support; impact on supply chain, data management, advocacy.