Countdown’s 2008 Report was released in April 2008 at the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Cape Town, South Africa, where Countdown to 2015 held its second international conference. The report, based primarily on data drawn from national surveys and global databases, measured coverage of basic health services proven to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality. It also assessed the strength of health systems, the status of policies related to maternal, newborn, and child health, and how equitably health services are distributed. The 2008 Report was Countdown’s first to encompass the full MNCH continuum of care. For this report, Countdown was expanded to cover 68 priority high-burden countries, and country profiles for these countries were published together with the report.
The key messages of the 2008 Report included the following:
- Many countries have made rapid progress in preventing childhood illness, but vital clinical care for women and children lags behind.
- A functioning continuum of care can ensure no one falls through the cracks.
- Investment in life-saving services during the period before pregnancy and through two years of age is critical to maternal, newborn and child survival.
- Governments and partners must urgently address undernutrition.
- To reduce inequalities, health services must be targeted to the poorest.
- Investment and political commitment translate directly into lives saved.
- If maternal, newborn, and child survival is the destination, we need reliable data to guide our action.
In a special issue timed to coincide with the launch of this report, The Lancet published a series of articles on coverage, equity, financing, and policy; a number of related commentaries; and detailed country analyses from South Africa and Tanzania.
Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival: The 2008 Report can be downloaded below, either in its entirety or in its component parts:
Executive Summary
Full Report
Full report (including Country Profiles)[10.03 MB]
Full report (without Country Profiles)[2.11 MB]
Report Sections
Abbreviations, Contributors, Acknowledgments, Contents [601 KB]
Chapter 1: Tracking intervention coverage for maternal, newborn and child survival [305 KB]
- Countdown principles
- Links to other monitoring efforts
- Overview of this report
Chapter 2: Tracking indicators and methods [346 KB]
- Selecting the Countdown priority countries
- Priority interventions and coverage indicators
- Indicators for factors that contribute to coverage
- Tracking improvements in equity
- Data sources and methods
- Coverage
- Policies, health systems and financial flows
- Equity
Chapter 3: The 2008 Countdown findings – and a call to action [972 KB]
- Nutritional status
- Coverage in 2008
- Recent coverage trends
- Coverage levels and trends for selected programmatic areas
- Equity in coverage levels
- Health policies and health systems
- Human resources and financing
- Financial flows to maternal, newborn and child health
- Conclusions and recommendations
- The Countdown call to action
- Annex A: Initiatives, resources and databases for monitoring progress towards the health-related MDGs with a special focus on maternal, newborn and child survival
- Annex B: Indicators and data sources
- Annex C: Defining current Countdown indicators
- Annex D: Definitions of policy and health systems indicators
- Annex E: Countdown to 2015 measuring equity in MNCH through the coverage gap index: technical notes
- Annex F: Countdown priority countries considered to be malaria endemic
Errata to printed Report [40 KB]
(Please note that errors have been corrected in PDF versions available for download above.