The purpose of the Maximizing Access and Quality (MAQ) Initiative is to bring together USAID/Washington, USAID Missions, the cooperating agency (CA) community and other partners to identify and implement practical, cost-effective, and evidence-based interventions aimed at improving both the access to and quality of family planning and reproductive health services. The MAQ Initiative was established in 1994 in response to the large unmet demand for voluntary contraceptive services. It is based on the understanding that removing barriers, promoting access and improving quality by focusing on specific practical interventions can serve the needs of clients and thereby markedly improve programs.
Although many CAs are already addressing access and quality-related objectives in their program activities, the MAQ Initiative provides opportunities for experts to collaborate and pool their knowledge and field experience in order to identify and promote state-of-the-art tools and concepts, thereby making them accessible to a wider audience. The MAQ Initiative highlights those areas of greatest practicality and impact that might serve as models in other countries or regions. In essence, MAQ aims to distill and disseminate lessons learned from the broader CA experience as well as identify critical areas that have not yet been addressed.
The MAQ Initiative draws significantly on leadership in the CA community. Over the years, ten subcommittees have been formed, nine of which focus on different technical aspects of quality and access. Of these, five are currently active and four are dormant. The five active subcommittees are: Community-Driven Quality (CDQ), Client-Provider Interaction (CPI), Management and Supervision (M&S), the Performance Improvement Consultative Group, and the new IUD subcommittee. The dormant subcommittes, listed as Former Subcommittees, are: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E); Technical Guidance/Competence (TG/C); Organization of Work (OOW); and Policy, Advocacy, Communication and Education (PACE). An additional subcommittee, the Francophone Regional Subcommittee, has a regional focus and a technical agenda that varies over time. The subcommittee structure allows USAID and its partners to document and share technical knowledge and evidence. Recent subcommittee activities include coordination of technical meetings, research related to application of service delivery standards at the field level, and production of state-of-the-art papers.
MAQ activities are designed to achieve two broader level results:
Result 1: Advance clinical and non-clinical best practices in family planning and reproductive health service delivery
The MAQ Initiative is working to achieve this objective through a variety of activities such as an evaluation of effective approaches to disseminate and reinforce service delivery guidelines at the national level. Another example is support for the identification and documentation of effective program models for community-based family planning and maternal/child health services after the postpartum period.
Result 2: Facilitate application of best practices in family planning and reproductive health
The MAQ Initiative has supported a variety of activities to strengthen application of best practices. One such activity has been the development of "MAQ technical briefs," or summaries, of evidence-based practices that have been shown to contribute to the improvement of family planning and reproductive health service delivery programs. These sheets provide an easy reference of best practices and tools that can be applied in strategy and program development by USAID and its partners.
Another such activity is the "MAQ Exchange," a workshop for USAID staff and partners in the field aimed at developing or improving family planning and reproductive health programs. The workshop equips the Mission and its partners to develop and implement a set of prioritized and realistic activities based on state-of-the-art evidence.
USAID is also a partner in the "Implementing Best Practices Consortium", a global initiative with the World Health Organization to support implementation of best practice in family planning and reproductive health.
Client-Provider Interaction (CPI) Subcommittee
Financial Sustainability Subcommittee
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