Countdown Principles

Countdown’s activities are guided by four principles: Focus on coverage Timely data on intervention coverage are essential for good program management. Governments and their partners need up-to-date information on whether their programs are reaching targeted groups. Such coverage information must be supplemented, of course, with measures of intervention quality and...

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Photoshare/Rezaul Haque

Countdown at the Country Level

For countries striving to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals — and particularly MDGs 4 (reduce child mortality) and 5 (improve maternal health) — information is a powerful and essential force for change. Understanding which interventions are being delivered effectively, identifying gaps, and ensuring accountability can all help renew momentum...

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WHO/Christopher Black

Countdown is an Essential Accountability Tool

With a targeted focus on MDGs 4 and 5, Countdown promotes accountability from governments and development partners by compiling, publishing, and reporting on critical data that indicate country progress — or lack of progress — in providing equitable coverage of effective health interventions and in improving maternal, newborn, and child health...

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Countdown to 2030: Achievements and Impact

Countdown has a unique role to play in international and national efforts to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. It seeks to provide clear and comprehensible data and analysis on key evidence-based interventions, to promote effective action, and to strengthen efforts...

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Countdown’s History

Countdown to 2030 was established in 2005 as a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration, in response to a growing recognition, increasingly backed by resources, that achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals  will demand radical changes to the scale and scope of effective strategies. Since its beginnings, The Lancet has been a key...

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