Activities in Liberia

Health systems have been improving since the end of the civil conflict in mutual cooperation between the Liberian government and the international community. To ensure quality health services that people can access in equity, much effort is still needed in terms of tackling insufficiency of human resources, facilities, equipment, and provision and management of services. Reduction of the extremely high maternal mortality rate (770 per 100,000 live births (2010 WHO)) is especially a big challenge. We focus our cooperation on maternal and child health.

(1) Rehabilitation and capacity development of Liberian-Japanese Friendship Maternity Hospital (LJFMH)

LJFMH, Liberia's top referral maternity hospital which the Japanese government established on grant aid in 1982, went through the conflict. The hospital provided people with care and treatment not limited to maternal health, while the facility and equipment were damaged due to lack of proper maintenance and looting. The Japanese government, resuming its cooperation with Liberia after the cessation of the conflict, renovated the hospital with provision of medical equipment. LJFMH is now equipped with some 150 beds and has on monthly basis some 1,600 outpatients, some 350 deliveries, some 800 inpatients and some 500 emergency outpatients. JICA cooperated in capacity development of staff in medical equipment maintenance, hospital management and maternal service delivery (in collaboration with Japanese Red Cross Society) by sending four experts.

Workshop by expert

Ex-training participant holding workshop on infant immunization

(2) Training

Since 2007 more than 70 government/NGO staff have participated in training courses in Japan and another developing country on maternal and child health, infection control, hospital management, health education, etc. Those participants have adopted what they learned to their work and service delivery in their improvement after they return. JICA is supporting some of them in conducting workshop to share their gained knowledge and skills with their colleagues.

(3) Improvement of health information system in capital area

To contribute to improvement of health service delivery in the capital area, JICA cooperated in capacity development of staff at County Health and Social Welfare Team (CHSWT). An expert provided CHSWT with hands-on support in improvement of its clinical supportive supervision check list, which is used for monitoring of health facilities CHSWT supervises.