Zimbabwe successfully concluded its first D2P Program with a Policy Forum in January 2025. The program was well-received by government officials, and the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) plans to institutionalize the approach within their decision-making processes. One of the policy briefs focused on high maternal mortality, which, although has declined, continues to be an issue of concern. The brief proposed increased investment in critical equipment and improved training for emergency obstetric care (EmOC) to decrease preventable institutional maternal mortality. The team that developed this brief attended Data Impact’s Accelerating Policy Advancement Workshop in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2024 and since then has seen progress in advancing the proposed interventions. In preparation for its next planning cycle, the MoHCC Reproductive Health Unit invited the D2P team to present their policy proposal, which they subsequently adopted, and soon, all provinces will plan to conduct EmOC trainings in 2025 following the recommended training approach, which will provide an opportunity to monitor the recommendation.

The impact of implementing the new training approach will be reviewed after a year to see if there has been an improvement in the quality of services and if there has been a reduction in the maternal mortality ratio in institutions that have received adequate EmOC training. The maternal health D2P team also presented and discussed the policy recommendation at the maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response (MPDSR) technical meeting in March 2025.