In three fast-growing Philippine cities, a mother’s chances of surviving childbirth – and her baby’s chances of surviving infancy – still depend too much on where she lives. That will soon change.
The Challenge Initiative (TCI) has secured funding for a new maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) program in Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, and Iligan called TCI LIFT (Local Investment for Family Transformation). Supported by the Quantedge Advancement Initiative (QAI) and the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA), and implemented by TCI’s Philippines hub led by the Zuellig Family Foundation, the program will officially launch once partnership agreements with the cities are finalized. Anthony Faraon, Chief of Party for TCI in the Philippines, shared:
TCI LIFT represents an important new chapter for TCI Philippines as we expand our work from strengthening family planning to supporting the broader continuum of maternal, newborn, and child health. Together with the Department of Health, PhilHealth, our local government partners, and the support of the QAI and the PAA, we look forward to adapting proven approaches that strengthen local health systems and improve outcomes for mothers, newborns, and children. We also hope the lessons from the three cities will contribute to new knowledge and help inform future maternal and child health policies and programs across the Philippines.
Together, the three cities are home to more than two million people, including hundreds of thousands of women of reproductive age and children under five. In Cagayan de Oro, the maternal mortality ratio stands at roughly 157 deaths per 100,000 live births – more than triple the national average. At nearly 70 per 1,000 live births, Zamboanga’s under-five mortality rate is among the highest in the region. Iligan has made gains in reducing mortality but still struggles to keep mothers and children connected to care after they leave the delivery room.
TCI LIFT takes a different approach than a typical aid program. Rather than building new clinics or parallel service systems, it will work inside the systems that already exist – coaching city health officials, hospitals, and local leaders to implement better MNCH programs themselves. TCI’s Lead-Assist-Observe-Monitor coaching model starts with intensive hands-on support and gradually transfers full ownership to the local government, so improvements outlast the program itself. It builds on a decade of similar work TCI has done strengthening family planning services across 15 countries, including the Philippines.
The program focuses on two outcomes that go hand in hand: keeping mothers and babies alive (survive), and helping children grow up healthy (thrive). In cities where mothers and newborns are most at risk, the priority is survival by making sure skilled birth attendants and quality emergency care are available if something goes wrong during labor and/or delivery. As that foundation gets stronger, attention shifts to thriving by making sure children get fully immunized, exclusively breastfed, and growing as they should. Both goals are tracked from the start, and each city, using its own data, decides how to balance them.
Each city will pursue a tailored strategy to achieve both survive and thrive outcomes, and shaped by its own challenges and data. Cagayan de Oro will focus on improving the quality of maternal care to drive down its high mortality rate. Zamboanga will strengthen emergency obstetric and newborn readiness and the referral networks that get high-risk mothers and babies to care in time. Iligan will concentrate on keeping families connected to services long after birth – particularly immunization and breastfeeding support.
In the program’s first year, teams will complete health assessments in all three cities, stand up local leadership structures, and begin coaching health workers and city officials. By the time TCI LIFT concludes in 2029, the goal is for all three cities to be running strong, self-sustaining MNCH programs on their own – with better data, stronger financing, and measurably healthier mothers, newborns, and children.
