MOMENTUM Overview

MOMENTUM was a $750 million investment by USAID and a suite of projects which aimed to accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity in high-burden countries by increasing host country commitment and capacity to provide high-quality, integrated health care. Through MOMENTUM, USAID met countries where they were on their development journey and provided the support needed to progress towards self-reliance for health. The project was terminated in 2025.

There were six unique awards including:

  • MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience: Led by IMA World Health/Corus
  • MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: Led by Jhpiego
  • MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery: Led by Population Services International (PSI)
  • MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator (MKA): Led by Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
  • MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics: Led by EngenderHealth
  • MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity (MRITE): Led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

CCIH’s Role in MOMENTUM

Christian Connections for International Health was involved in MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership focused on technical and capacity development assistance (TCDA) to ministries of health and other country partners to improve outcomes for maternal, newborn, and child health; voluntary family planning; and reproductive health care (MNCH/FP/RH).

It sought to build upon existing evidence and best practices as well as to catalyze innovations that enable government-led partnerships to deliver high-quality, evidence-based interventions that accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity at scale. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership contributed to global technical leadership, learning, and USAID’s policy dialogue to achieve global MNCH/FP/RH goals by supporting globally-endorsed initiatives, strategies, frameworks, guidelines, and action plans.

CCIH served as the Faith Engagement Team (FET) of the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership program and was involved in many activities. CCIH’s activities and partners included:

  • Ensuring MNCH/FP/RH services with the Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone.
  • Faith Engagement to Address Vaccine Hesitancy and Promote Uptake.
  • Developed a toolkit for Faith Engagement in Perinatal/Maternal Mental Health.
  • Primary Health Care landscape.
  • Including faith-based organizations in research and capacity development activities regarding Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene and Infection Prevention and Control.

In 2023, the African Christian Health Association Platform (ACHAP) joined USAID’s MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership team as the regional health network partner to strengthen their capacity and the capacity of their more than 40 members to implement water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and infection prevention and control (IPC) services in their health care facility networks. ACHAP conducted a baseline survey to identify their members’ WASH/IPC capacity needs, launched a WASH technical working group, and created a WASH/IPC learning resource webpage on their website to be a one-stop shop to share current WASH/IPC learning events, networking opportunities, and resources with their members. ACHAP focused on building the waste management capacity of their members, as this was identified as a need based on the results of the baseline assessment that ACHAP conducted.

Completed projects for the Faith Engagement Team under MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership include:

  • High Impact Practices (HIP): Strengthening Partnership with Faith Actors in Family Planning: A Strategic Planning Guide (SPG)
  • Engaging Faith Actors to Improve Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Infection Prevention Control (IPC) with the Christian Health Association of Ghana, the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau and the Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone.
  • Strengthening Faith-Based Drug Supply Organizations with Cameroon Baptist Convention Central Pharmacy, Presbyterian Church Central Pharmacy, National Catholic Health Service (Catholic Drug Centre), Ghana Adventist Health Services, Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS), Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Central Pharmacy Limited (ECPL), and Joint Medical Stores.
  • Faith-based Organizations Supporting Very Young Adolescents in Bangladesh with World Renew and World Mission Prayer League (LAMB Hospital).
  • FP/RH: Contributing to content for the FP Training Resource Package (TRP), planning committee for the FP2030 South to South learning workshop: Interfaith Action to Drive Progress on FP2030 Commitments​ and the FP2030 Accelerating Access to Postpartum and Post-abortion Family Planning Workshop.

Key Products Produced by the Faith Engagement Team under MOMENTUM

The Faith Engagement Team was involved in many efforts to improve health for women and children. A sample of key products produced during the project include:

  • Maternal Mental Health Toolkit for Engaging Faith Actors: The toolkit was designed to equip diverse faith actors with the information and tools needed to raise awareness, deconstruct myths, and address barriers that inhibit positive maternal mental health so that women, families, and communities can thrive.
  • Promoting Vaccination: A Toolkit for Collaborating with Faith Communities: The vaccine promotion toolkit was developed to identify and address concerns among religious leaders and faith-based communities around vaccination. The project completed a global landscape analysis and 18 key informant interviews for engaging faith leaders in vaccination, which was synthesized into step-by-step best practices in the toolkit
  • Strengthening very young adolescents (VYA) in gender equality in Bangladesh: This article in the Christian Journal for Global Health explains the effort supported by MOMENTUM to strengthen the capacity of the faith-based organization World Renew to increase the quality and reach of programming with VYAs to delay pregnancy, prevent child marriage, and improve youth programing; and allow for the development of models and examples for how to engage the faith-based community in family-centered VYA programming which can provide lessons learned and recommendations that might inform similar efforts.

If you have any questions about CCIH’s involvement in MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership, please contact mona.bormet (at) ccih.org