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Advocacy, Association, Enabling Environment, Leadership

ICM launches Twin to Win pilot project

ICM
2 February 2023

Just before the New Year, midwives from around the world descended on Casablanca, Morocco to participate in kick-off meetings for the first-ever Twin to Win pilot project. Over the next two years, six midwives’ associations will form three pairs, and within those pairs, they will support each other to design and execute collaborative and individual projects with the ultimate goal of strengthening midwifery in their respective countries.  

The Twin to Win pilot project was developed in response to ICM midwives’ associations asking for more association-strengthening activities. Unlike other twinning projects, Twin to Win matches MAs from similar social and economic contexts to establish non-hierarchal, mutually beneficial relationships between the sets of Twins. ICM will take a backseat role in the project by facilitating workshops and regular progress check-ins, enabling the Twins to work independently and in consideration of their existing workloads. 

We are pleased to include MAs from the following countries in the pilot project: 

  • Burundi and Uganda (English-speaking)
  • Senegal and Mali (French-speaking)
  • Guatemala and Costa Rica (Spanish-speaking)  

During our three days in Morocco, the Twins established project commitments, worked on their project plans, shared stories about midwifery in their countries and developed personal relationships with each other – an essential feature of the feminist communication model Twinning promotes. The workshops were led by ICM Midwife Advisor, Liselotte Kweekel and Franka Cadée acting as an expert consultant on twinning – Both midwives have extensive twinning experience having participated in many twinning activities throughout their midwifery careers. 

In surveys conducted directly after the workshops, the Twins indicated how much they valued the English, French and Spanish interpreters who were on site to translate everything shared by facilitators and participants into all three languages. This meant that the room where our workshop took place often sounded more like a busy Moroccan market – click here for video evidence.

We are extremely proud to have launched this pilot project which stands as a true example of ICM’s efforts to prioritise association-strengthening and cross-cultural collaboration. The Twins are now working on their project concepts which we look forward to sharing in the coming weeks.  

Click here to learn more about the Twin to Win pilot project and the participating midwives’ associations.  

What is Twinning?  

Twinning is a cross-cultural, reciprocal process where two groups of people work together to achieve joint goals (Cadee, F. 2020). The method has been recognised as an effective way to improve the quality of midwifery care in health systems by means of building the leadership capacity of midwives from both professional associations involved in the partnership.