The International Confederation of Midwives’ Midwifery Education Accreditation Programme (ICM’s MEAP) is based on international best practices in the field of midwifery education and accreditation. It seeks to evaluate pre-service midwifery educational programmes against the ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education (2013 and any subsequent updates).
The MEAP serves as a benchmark for midwifery educational programmes that aim to meet international standards. It offers accreditation approval based on an independent assessment of an institute’s midwifery educational programme(s) to determine the extent to which it meets ICM standards. MEAP not only serves as a quality label but enables consistency of midwifery education processes and graduate outcomes. MEAP helps strengthen existing midwifery educational programmes globally and provides a process for benchmarking against the global standards developed by ICM. It also helps to identify best practices and gaps, allowing donors and implementers to provide targeted, effective and sustainable support for high-quality midwifery education.
Funding was made available to the ICM by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to pilot MEAP in three eligible midwifery education programmes to undertake the MEAP at no cost to the schools.
Click here to learn how staff at Rwanda’s Kibogora Polytechnic experienced the MEAP process
ICM is still in the process of assessing the remaining two midwifery schools. Once the pilot phase is over, ICM aims to further refine MEAP eligibility criteria and the process based on our findings and lessons learnt during the pilot. ICM hopes to roll out MEAP for wider delivery in 2022.
Selection process:
- Applying midwifery schools must complete an Expression of Interest form and return it to ICM with additonal documentation as requested, by the closing date
- ICM may seek further information from applying schools
- ICM will select three midwifery programmes that it considers best meet its selection criteria
There are four main stages of the MEAP pilot:
- Expression of Interest (EOI): Interested midwifery education institutes make an initial application by submitting an expression of interest form to ICM. ICM assesses the EOI against the selection criteria and those education institutes that meet the criteria will be invited to progress to the next stage. Please note that ICM may ask for more information and/or ask you to submit answers to further questions before making a decision whether to invite you to progress to the next stage;
- Application: Those education providers that meet the necessary criteria at the EoI stage undertake an internal self-evaluation and submit the self-evaluation report to ICM. ICM Accreditation experts review the self-evaluation report and supporting materials and make a decision on whether to make an in-country assessment visit;
- In Country Assessment: ICM accreditation experts carry out in-country assessments to verify and triangulate data and written documentation submitted by the midwifery educational institution during the Application Phase;
- Accreditation: ICM accreditation experts prepare an evaluation report including recommendations based on in-country visits. The ICM Board reviews the report and renders a decision, regarding whether to award: accreditation, accreditation with conditions (to be delivered with in a specified timeframe) or no accreditation, to the midwifery education programme.
Participation in the MEAP is voluntary; review for accreditation is initiated by the midwifery educational programme/school/institution and undertaken at their request. It neither replaces nor supersedes any in-country accreditation processes or requirements. Further, it does not replace any national midwifery regulatory process or standards for registration/licensure or quality improvement in place.
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