Kohenour Akter

Biographic Data

ID6162438
NAMEKohenour Akter
GIVEN NAMESKohenour
FAMILY NAMEAkter
SIGNATUREAKTER K
AFFILIATIONSCentre for Health Research and Implementation, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ORCID0000-0002-0409-1099
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS16
TOTAL CITATIONS4
AUTHOR COUNT16
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2011
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX2

  • Do global health networks facilitate innovation, learning and sharing? A qualitative analysis of the Quality-of-Care Network in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda

    Open AccessKondwani Mwandira, Seblewengel Lemma et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    The Quality-of-Care Network (QCN), launched by WHO and partners, links global and national actors across several countries to improve maternal and newborn health. We conducted a prospective qualitative study to examine how QCN in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda facilitated learning, sharing, and innovation within and between network countries. We conducted 227 key informant interviews with QCN actors at global, national, and facility leve…

  • How to evaluate a multi-country implementation-focused network

    Open AccessGloria Seruwagi, Mike English et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Learning about how to evaluate implementation-focused networks is important as they become more commonly used. This research evaluated the emergence, legitimacy and effectiveness of a multi-country Quality of Care Network (QCN) aiming to improve maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) outcomes. We examined the QCN global level, national and local level interfaces in four case study countries. This paper presents the evaluation team’s reflection…

  • Effectiveness of a multi-country implementation-focused network on quality of care

    Open AccessNehla Djellouli, Yusra Ribhi Shawar et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (QCN) aims to work through learning, action, leadership and accountability. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of QCN in these four areas at the global level and in four QCN countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda. This mixed method evaluation comprised 2–4 iterative rounds of data collection between 2019–2022, involving stakeholder interviews, hospita…

  • Factors shaping network emergence

    Open AccessYusra Ribhi Shawar, Nehla Djellouli et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    The Quality-of-Care Network (QCN) was conceptualized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other global partners to facilitate learning on and improve quality of care for maternal and newborn health within and across low and middle-income countries. However, there was significant variance in the speed and extent to which QCN formed in the involved countries. This paper investigates the factors that shaped QCN’s differential emergence in Bang…

  • Evaluating theory of change to improve the functioning of the network for improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health

    Open AccessAlbert Dube, Kondwani Mwandira et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    In 2017, WHO and global partners launched ‘The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health’ (QCN) seeking to reduce in-facility maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirth by 50% in health facilities by 2022. We explored how the QCN theory of change guided what actually happened over 2018–2022 in order to understand what worked well, what did not, and to ultimately describe the consequences of QCN activities. We ap…

  • Influences on policy-formulation, decision-making, organisation and management for maternal, newborn and child health in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda

    Open AccessKohenour Akter, Yusra Ribhi Shawar et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (QCN) is intended to facilitate learning, action, leadership and accountability for improving quality of care in member countries. This requires legitimacy—a network’s right to exert power within national contexts. This is reflected, for example, in a government’s buy-in and perceived ownership of the work of the network. During 2019–2022 we conducted iterative round…

  • Individual, organizational and system circumstances, and the functioning of a multi-country implementation-focused network for maternal, newborn and child health

    Open AccessAnene Tesfa, Catherine Nakidde et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Better policies, investments, and programs are needed to improve the integration and quality of maternal, newborn, and child health services. Previously, partnerships and collaborations that involved multiple countries with a unified aim have been observed to yield positive results. Since 2017, the WHO and partners have hosted the Quality of Care Network [QCN], a multi-country implementation network focused on improving maternal, neonatal, and ch…

  • Individual interactions in a multi-country implementation-focused quality of care network for maternal, newborn and child health

    Open AccessFidele Kanyimbu Mukinda, Nehla Djellouli et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (QCN) was established to build a cross-country platform for joint-learning around quality improvement implementation approaches to reduce mortality. This paper describes and explores the structure of the QCN in four countries and at global level. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA), this cross-sectional study maps the QCN networks at global level and in four countrie…

  • Opportunities to sustain a multi-country quality of care network

    Open AccessSeblewengel Lemma, Callie Daniels-Howell et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    The Quality of Care Network (QCN) is a global initiative that was established in 2017 under the leadership of WHO in 11 low-and- middle income countries to improve maternal, newborn, and child health. The vision was that the Quality of Care Network would be embedded within member countries and continued beyond the initial implementation period: that the Network would be sustained. This paper investigated the experience of actions taken to sustain…

  • Stakeholder perceptions on scaling-up community-led interventions for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh

    Open AccessKohenour Akter, Abdul Kuddus et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2023

    Research highlighted the need for a preventative community engagement strategy to address NCDs, and the potential to utilise existing cadres to scale-up community-led interventions. It will be important to work with key stakeholders to address gender issues and ensure flexibility and responsiveness to community concerns. We indicate areas for further implementation research to develop scaled-up models of community-led interventions to address NCD…

  • Equity impact of participatory learning and action community mobilisation and mHealth interventions to prevent and control type 2 diabetes and intermediate hyperglycaemia in rural Bangladesh

    Open AccessMalini Pires, Sanjit Shaha et al.ARTICLEJournal of Epidemiology and…2022Cited by: 2References: 32

    BACKGROUND: A cluster randomised trial of mHealth and participatory learning and action (PLA) community mobilisation interventions showed that PLA significantly reduced the prevalence of intermediate hyperglycaemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the incidence of T2DM among adults in rural Bangladesh; mHealth improved knowledge but showed no effect on glycaemic outcomes. We explore the equity of intervention reach and impact. METHODS: Int…

  • Learning from a diabetes mHealth intervention in rural Bangladesh

    Open AccessJoanna Morrison, Kohenour Akter et al.ARTICLEGlobal Public Health2021

    There is an urgent need for population-based interventions to slow the growth of the diabetes epidemic in low-and middle-income countries. We tested the effectiveness of a population-based mHealth voice messaging intervention for T2DM prevention and control in rural Bangladesh through a cluster randomised controlled trial. mHealth improved knowledge and awareness about T2DM but there was no detectable effect on T2DM occurrence. We conducted mixed…

  • Care-seeking and managing diabetes in rural Bangladesh

    Open AccessHannah Maria Jennings, Joanna Morrison et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2021

    ISRCTN41083256 . Registered on 30/03/2016

  • Visual Participatory Analysis

    Open AccessJenevieve Mannell, Katy Davis et al.ARTICLEJournal of Mixed Methods Research2020Cited by: 2References: 3

    This article contributes to the field of mixed methods by introducing a new method for eliciting participant perspectives of the quantitative results of randomized controlled trials. Participants are rarely asked to interpret trial results, obscuring potentially valuable information about why a trial either succeeds or fails. We introduce a unique method called visual participatory analysis and discuss the insights gained in its use as part of a …

  • Developing a theory-driven contextually relevant mHealth intervention

    Open AccessHannah Maria Jennings, Joanna Morrison et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2019

    In order to respond to the local needs of a community in Bangladesh, a process of formative research, drawing on behavioural theory helped in the development of awareness-raising and behaviour change mHealth messages through helping us to conceptualise and understand behaviour (for example by categorising behaviour into specific domains) and subsequently identify specific behavioural strategies to target the behaviour

  • SP5-16 Towards integration of unconventional medicines in the public health service

    A H Mollik, AH Mollik et al.ARTICLEJournal of Epidemiology and…2011

    Introduction Bangladesh hosts more than 200 000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. With no changes inside Myanmar in sight, Bangladesh must come to terms with the long-term needs of all the Rohingya refugees' in the country, and allow international organisations to expand services that benefit the Rohingya refugees as well as local communities. We therefore conducted a survey of plants used by the traditional healers in the Rohingya refugees' of Ban…