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Countdown to 2015 In-Depth Country Case Studies 

Posted on November 10, 2017 Posted By: Admin Categories: 2015

At the heart of its country level work, Countdown supports in-depth case studies of country progress for women and children. Building country-level capacity to conduct this type of in-depth research is a central objective of Countdown, leading to better technical work that is conducted within specific country contexts and helping to build sustainable institutional capacity for ongoing monitoring and analysis of progress in RMNCH. All Countdown case studies followed a defined set of principles and processes.

Countdown kicked off this country-level research with the publication in The Lancet in September 2012 of an in-depth case study of Niger’s achievements in improving child survival. This research was carried out in collaboration with many in-country partners and government institutions.  (A slide presentation summarizing the Niger study’s findings can be downloaded here.) A second in-depth case study, led by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and focused on understanding Bangladesh’s success in reducing maternal mortality, was conducted in 2013; the results were published in The Lancet in June 2014, and are summarized in a Countdown Country Case Study Brief. A third country case study was conducted in 2013-2014 in Tanzania, and its preliminary results were published in a policy brief and launched in May 2014 at a national Country Countdown event hosted by President Kikewete. The results of the Tanzania case study were published in Lancet Global Health in June 2015.

The preliminary findings of a case study in Peru were presented at national technical meetings in November 2014 and May 2015, and journal publication of the results is planned for 2015. Preliminary results from case studies in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Pakistan have been disseminated at national events in 2015, and findings from each of those studies are also being prepared for publication. Additional case studies are being conducted in China and Kenya; results of those studies will be disseminated and published in late 2015 or 2016.

Countdown Country Case Study Briefs, one-page infobriefs that graphically summarize the studies’ key findings, are published and made available for download as each study’s results achieve journal publication and/or are disseminated in-country.

Countdown’s in-depth country case studies focus on understanding and explaining how progress was achieved. Through supporting this research, Countdown aims to build a portfolio of studies that assess multiple outcomes across the continuum of care, and that include attention to success stories as well as areas where progress was not made, and analyze the reasons why. Countdown case studies are led by in-country institutions that are independent of RMNCH program implementation, and plans and preliminary results presented and discussed with Government and other relevant stakeholders. An in-depth case study requires the availability of good, relevant data as a prerequisite, and may take place either before, simultaneous to, or after the initiation of a Country Countdown process.

At a Countdown capacity-building workshop offered at the 2013 Women Deliver conference, Dr. Jennifer Bryce of Countdown’s Coverage Working Group offered a detailed description of the Countdown case study in a slide presentation:

  • Slide presentation: Countdown In-Depth Country Case Studies
  • Presentations and tools developed for a capacity-building workshop on in-depth case studies, held in Pelotas, Brazil , in July 2013, can be downloaded here.

Afghanistan case study:

Bangladesh case study:

China case study:

Ethiopia case study:

Kenya case study:

Malawi case study:

Niger case study:

Pakistan case study:

  • Pakistan case study results to be published in 2015.

Peru case study:

Tanzania case study: