No. 15: The MNPI Study: Measures of Strength for Maternal Health Programs in 55 Developing Countries John A. Ross and Jane E. Begala (November 2004)  Full Document (English)      Order for free      email to me  The research reported here concerns the Maternal and Neonatal Program Effort Index (MNPI), a standardized assessment instrument applied in both 1999 and 2002. Previous reports cover the detailed methodology and the results from the 1999 study, as well as the relation of the MNPI ratings to maternal mortality ratios (Ross, Campbell, and Bulatao, 2001; Bulatao and Ross, 2002; Bulatao and Ross, 2003a). The MNPI instrument is designed to measure the strength and character of government programs to improve maternal health. It contains items for the most proximate determinants of maternal survival, including those related to emergency obstetric and abortion cases, as well as the less proximate determinants of the policies and institutional arrangements necessary to build treatment capacities. Capturing these program features can document the low effort levels that now exist and create a baseline against which to trace future improvements. The overall purpose is to measure program inputs and strength of effort for the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity and closely related neonatal items.