Executive Summary 

Aims

We apply our research findings on midwifery professional association strengthening to argue that investing in midwifery associations is central to increasing the number of qualified educated midwives, and in turn increasing access to sexual and reproductive health and rights including modern contraception. Our recommendations for Global Affairs Canada focus on how to enhance the impact of the key action areas of the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) through midwifery associations. Specifically, our policy brief:

• Synthesizes the best available data and research evidence on capacity building of midwifery associations;
• Defines the core concepts related to sustainable capacity building of midwifery associations;
• Operationalizes these concepts through a ‘checklist’ (available in French); and
• Develops policy recommendations based on the findings across programmatic and policy levels.

Main Findings

• Midwifery associations are an example of largely women led, nationally recognized, civil society organizations that improve gender equality and overall access to sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
• A pillar to the profession, midwifery associations support midwives by providing continuing education training, in-service mentorship and supervision in order to improve the experience of pregnancy and childbirth and eliminate maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.
• Midwifery associations lobby for the integration of midwifery in health systems by overseeing and monitoring standards of midwifery care, supporting accreditation mechanisms for quality midwifery education programs, advocating for appropriate remuneration, among other critical contributions.
• Despite their importance to achieving universal health coverage and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, midwifery associations often face barriers to engaging in policymaking arena due to the disempowerment of the profession driven by the intersectionality of gender, sociopolitical, professional, and economic factors.

Recommendations

• Our research shows that capacity building of midwifery associations combined with continuing education activities that are housed and facilitated by the midwifery association decreases maternal mortality and morbidity – demonstrating the broader system impacts of investing in midwifery associations.
• Core recommendations include: 1) ensuring midwifery associations are embedded in projects that strengthen the midwifery profession and promote access to SRHR; 2) incorporating equity and feminist frameworks for program implementation and evaluation approaches that promote equity and challenge power imbalances; 3) applying a gender lens to the capacity building of midwifery associations including understanding the impacts of ethnicity and race; 4) expanding the FIAP Action Area Key Performance Indicators to include a broader set of indicators; and 5) increasing support for midwifery associations to actively engage in program implementation.

Funding

• The policy brief was produced for the International Policy Ideas Challenge funded by Global Affairs Canada and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Government of Canada. The views expressed in the policy brief are the views of the authors and should not be taken to represent the views of Global Affairs Canada.

Investigators

  Cristina Mattison
  Kirsty Bourret

For more info:

• Click here to download GAC Checklist in English and in French
• Click here to download GAC Policy Brief
• Click here to watch a presentation of their findings in English and in French