Linking policy to practice in Armenia

USAID’s Project NOVA aims to increase use of appropriate and safe Reproductive Health/Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health services and practices in rural areas of Armenia.  Under the terms of the Project, national Armenian RH/FP/MCH policies, standards and guidelines are reviewed through the lens of a “policy-to-practice/practice-to-policy” approach, which factors in program and service-delivery issues and uses evidence to continuously improve and refine policies based on the implementational experience. A number of indepth policy reviews and several technical reports have been undertaken to pave the way towards an improved regulatory environment in reproductive health. Interactive presentations are undertaken during roll-out of NOVA’s materials, including informational client education posters and brochures covering topics such as the Basic Benefits Package, antenatal care, postpartum and infant care, postabortion care and family planning.  The roll-out includes a Q&A session with NOVA’s medical staff known as “Ask Doctor Gohar” initiative.  To date, these products have reached 39 rural communities totaling at least 720 rural dwellers.

Project NOVA has established and produced three issues of the peer-reviewed Armenian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Neonatology in order to promote the use of evidence-based medicine in routine RH/FP/MCH practice.  Job descriptions for rural community nurses have been developed and promoted in order to improve overall performance of primary healthcare providers. To ensure policy is reflective of needs, NOVA uses Geographic Information Systems to input, store, retrieve, manipulate, analyze and output geographically referenced data to support planning, monitoring, decision-making and to solve complex problems in the areas of RH/FP/MCH.  NOVA contributed to the development and the implementation of the National Reproductive Health Strategy and Program of Action, the National Primary Healthcare Strategy, and State Free Obstetric Care Initiative, including design of the national campaign’s poster and certificate promoting free obstetric care.