Below are extracts from a recent news release from Malawi WHO Country Office and a comment from me, with thanks to HIFA designated technical officer Diana Zandi.
22 May 2026
Malawi is institutionalizing quality of care in all its programmes and the delivery of essential health packages at all levels of health care within the Health Sector Strategic Plan III 2023-2030. With support from the World Health Organization WHO, 29 districts institutionalized quality of care using WHO adapted quality-of-care network technical resources, an upgrade from the existing 9 learning districts.
The WHO encourages member states to adopt a whole-system approach to improve healthcare quality and patient safety for achieving universal health coverage and SDG 3 targets with a focus on effectiveness, safety, and people-centeredness.
Through point-of-care training, coaching, and mentorship, 70 trained zonal and district mentors reached 1,234 health workers across 180 health facilities in 18 districts. Of these, 46% were female, including nurses, clinicians, data clerks, and Health Surveillance Assistants. Health workers strengthened their knowledge and skills in addressing the leading causes of maternal and newborn deaths, including patient, community, health system, and administrative factors, and implemented effective quality improvement projects. Over 85% of mentees rated their mentors as “very good” or “excellent” in quality-of-care knowledge and skills...
COMMENT (NPW): It would be interesting to learn more about this approach. It sounds like a modified type of continuous professional development whereby the quality of care aspect is embedded in clinical training. Or perhaps it is a new approach that puts quality of care central. I have reached out to the local WHO contact person, Ovixlexla Kamenyagwaza-Bunya and invited him/her to join us.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org