PURPOSE:
Globally, there are increasing calls for investment in quality midwifery to improve maternal and newborn outcomes for women and girls. Evidence available suggests that educated and regulated midwives can deliver 90% of essential maternal, newborn, sexual reproductive, and adolescent health services. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), transitioning to midwifery models of care is a sustainable strategy to provide high-quality maternal, newborn, and sexual reproductive health services, towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Despite these calls for quality midwifery, several reports have documented midwifery workforce challenges, noting educational, regulatory, practice, and policy gaps, especially in low and middle-income countries. This project aimed to improve midwifery education and practice through the implementation of the Midwifery Education and Practice Centers of Excellence Program (MEPCEP) for improved midwifery service delivery in Ghana

DISCUSSION:
The project utilized an implementation science approach. The MEPCEP program implementation was guided by recommendations from a contextual assessment of midwifery education in Ghana. The MEPCEP program combines faculty and provider capacity development, provision of teaching, learning, and high-fidelity midwifery skills equipment, and ongoing monitoring to upgrade current midwifery schools and clinical sites to globally recognized centers of excellence standards.

EVIDENCE WHERE RELEVANT:
Two midwifery schools and their respective clinical sites were selected from the two most populated regions in Ghana as pilot sites. The selected sites were supported with faculty capacity development and guidelines for effective teaching and learning. Additionally, the project has supported the selected sites with equipment to promote midwifery skills simulations. The project further seeks to utilize evidence from monitoring and evaluation to guide a national scale up of the MEPCEP program.

KEY MESSAGE:
The MEPCEP program presents a strategic innovation for quality midwifery education and practice in Ghana for sustainable maternal, newborn and sexual reproductive health outcomes. Education faculty development 2