title: Policy change and its application to Safe Motherhood programming.
abstract: The status of women's health and nutrition is affected by the absence or presence of government and private sector policies to promote women's rights to access quality maternal and family planning services. While both family planning and child survival literature pays substantial attention to the 'policy environment', little information is available with regard to the promotion of policies to support Safe motherhood Initiatives. Through a review of the family planning and child survival literature and from lessons learned from experiences of MotherCare country projects, this paper explores the issues and processes of policy formulation, implementation and sustainability. The paper also highlights specific Safe Motherhood strategies requiring policy attention with suggestions and examples of advocacy activities, research and demonstration projects which have been successful in creating and/or stimulating policy formulation. While there is no magic formula for policy promotion, experience has shown that a 'body of constituents', including women themselves as beneficiaries, is the key to moving the political process in the favor of Safe Motherhood.
authors.affiliation: MotherCare Project/John Snow, Inc., Arlington, VA, USA.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Conroy
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011640:Public Policy; D012106:Research; D016387:Women's Health