The main national plan in Zambia is the National Health Strategic Plan (NHSP) 2017-2021. In early 2020, the Countdown to 2030 core team worked with the Ministry of Health to produce an analytical report for the midterm review of the NHSP 2017-2021. This report made extensive use of the health facility data from DHIS2 and the recent surveys, including the Zambia DHS 2018, to assess progress for all programs towards the NHSP targets. The GFF investment case for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health is under development.

During 2023-2025, the Zambia country collaboration:

• Participated in annual meetings in 2023, 2024 and 2025. 
• Contributed to the maternal newborn health study; synthesis report and policy brief published.
• Hosted in a data dissemination event in November 2025.
• Completed analysis for the immunization study, then held a dissemination event in January 2025.
• Completed both the quantitative and qualitative phases of the urban health study; published results in a peer-reviewed article.
• Published an analysis of health equity.
• Contributed to a technical meeting on maternal mortality and stillbirth calculation.
• Presented at the Conference on Public Health in Africa in 2023, the Global Public Health Conference in 2024, the African Population Conference in 2024, the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference in 2026.
• Mwiche Msukuma was selected as a Countdown fellow in 2023.

During 2020 to 2022 the Zambia Countdown country collaboration focused on  :

• Analysis of health facility data from DHIS2 to obtain district-level estimates of coverage and improve local target setting, informing the 2021 endline review of the NHSP and the first annual review of the GFF investment case.
• In-depth assessment of levels and trends in RMNCAH+N indicators with a focus on equity using household demographic and health surveys to understand what has worked, for whom, and why.
• Analytical methods and tool development with the ministry of health's analytical team for future analysis of and reporting on national and subnational performance using DHIS2 and other data in the context of reviews (2022)
• National and subnational statistical profiles, fact sheets, and policy briefs.
• Scientific publication(s) from in-depth thematic studies. 

All this can be viewed in the data uptake brief for Zambia, available here.