Does leadership and management training program improve maternal and child health outcomes: a before and after study in the health region of Agnéby-Tiassa-mé in Côte D’ivoire

Objective: the hypothesis tested in the study was that strengthening health system, especially leadership and management skills of health teams, will result in an improvement of maternal and child health outcomes from 2015 to 2017. Methods: this is a before and after design study without control group in the health region of Agnéby-Tiassa-Mé. The evolution of the following indicators was assessed to evaluate the impact of the LDP program: the four and more antenatal care visit, the maternal mortality rate, the percentage of births attended by skilled health staff, sulfadoxine pyrimethamine two doses coverage, sulfadoxine pyrimethamine three doses coverage, Penta 3 coverage. Data were collected from district monthly reports, birth registers, and quarterly reports from the health region; then analyzed using Excel. Results: in general all the indicators have improved in 2017 except for the four and more antenatal care visit and Penta 3 coverage which knew a slight decrease in 2017 but still higher than 2015. Conclusion: leadership and management training is a key element of ingredient for in health system strengthening and outcomes improving in limited resources countries.