Countries are making progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to health, but the pace falls short of what would be needed to achieve the global targets on time, concludes a Countdown to 2030 report published by The Lancet. The report will be presented to policymakers and other key...
Tracking Health Inequalities for Action Countdown to 2030 has released the 2025 update of the equity country profiles, offering a clearer and more comprehensive picture of health disparities across low- and middle-income countries. With 15 newly updated profiles, this latest version refines the visualization of inequalities by wealth, geography, and...
April 1- 3,2025, Countdown to 2030 Zimbabwe country collaboration team—comprising the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care, the University of Zimbabwe’s Global Public Health and Family Medicine Department, the African Population and Health Research Center, and the The Global Financing Facility (GFF)—joined forces to support a diverse subnational team...
This post reflects comments made by Dr. Elizabeth Hazel from the Monitoring for Action and Gender Equity (MAGE) project, a collaboration between the Global Financing Facility and Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Choolwe Jacobs from the University of Zambia during a webinar on 6 February 2025. Learn more about the...
On March 6, 2025, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) hosted the dissemination workshop for Phase 3 of the Countdown to 2030 (CD2030) project in its main conference hall. This event brought together all the structures involved in the project, highlighting the progress made and the future prospects. A...
On April 14, 2025, Countdown to 2030 – in collaboration with The Lancet, the Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Social Action and other partners – will host a launch event for the 2025 Countdown Lancet Report, a global report on the situation and trends in women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health...
On February 21, 2025, the Malawi Countdown country collaboration team held a dissemination meeting on immunization vaccine coverage analyses at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Lilongwe Campus. The meeting brought together key stakeholders from the health sector, including policymakers, program managers, researchers, and development partners, to discuss strengthening country-led monitoring...
Countdown’s communications team held a capacity development webinar on how to write an influential policy brief. The webinar aimed to demonstrate how to package policy-relevant evidence to address challenges related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition. Emma Williams, Diana Munjuri, and Assane Diouf facilitated the webinar,...
Child Survival Action (CSA) hosted a webinar to discuss its Global Results and Accountability Framework in January 2025. This framework aims to eliminate preventable child deaths and ensure countries stay on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030 under-five mortality target. The event featured expert panelists who shared...
Countdown co-hosted a webinar with PMNCH to showcase the latest versions of the Countdown country profiles and country chartbooks in February 2025. The webinar described how these tools can help accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health. Global experts, policymakers, and advocates...
Analysis of health financing is essential for measuring countries’ progress toward universal health coverage and understanding whether their spending is aligned with their goals. Since 2020, health financing analysis has been used by Countdown country collaborations in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, Malawi, and Côte d’Ivoire. Members of Countdown’s Health...
On January 31, 2025, the Countdown to 2030 Zambia Country collaboration team, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Health Zambia and the University of Zambia School of Public Health, held a maternal health and immunization indicator coverage in Zambia, dissemination meeting in Lusaka, Zambia. The team shared results on...
Applications to join the 2025 cohort of Countdown fellows are open until February 28, 2025. This one-year fellowship enables African researchers to strengthen their analytical capacities for monitoring reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. The selection of successful fellows will be based on the following criteria; Country: Be a...
The Countdown to 2030 country collaboration in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a strategic partnership between the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention; the Kinshasa School of Public Health (University of Kinshasa), the Global Financing Facility (GFF), and other key actors involved in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child...
On February 6, 2025, 09H00-11H00 (EST, UTC -5), Countdown to 2030 in partnership with PMNCH will hold a capacity development webinar. This webinar aims to showcase the latest version of the Countdown equity, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH&N), and Early Childhood Development country profiles, explaining...
Countdown has much to celebrate as 2024 draws to a close. This year marked numerous milestones, including our largest annual meeting to date, followed by productive data dialogue in countries. We had several opportunities to advocate at the global level, published 33 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and our second cohort...
WorldPop, the University of Southampton-based organization which leads Countdown’s geospatial data & analysis center, marked its 10th anniversary in October and has published several new resources relevant to Countdown’s mission. The event, Mapping the Future of Spatial Demography, brought together experts, researchers, and policymakers to explore the evolving role of...
Following the 2024 country annual meeting in April, the Countdown Ethiopia Country Collaboration team, led by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, disseminated key analytical outputs. This effort aimed to inform stakeholders, influence policy, and improve health outcomes in Ethiopia. The objectives of...
On December 12, 2024, Countdown to 2030 organized a dissemination meeting on maternal health and immunization indicator coverage in Somalia, leveraging routine health facility data-derived denominators. The meeting was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Health-Somalia and the Capital University of Somalia, as part of the Somalia Country Collaboration...
Ghana is making strides in improving the availability of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health + nutrition (RMNCAH+N) data, though challenges remain. Despite significant improvements in antenatal care (ANC) coverage, similar progress in skilled delivery and postnatal care has yet to be realized. The district health information management system...
The Countdown to 2030 project conducted a data analytics training workshop on reproductive, maternal, and child health indicators in Mogadishu, Somalia, from December 10 to 11, 2024. The training, aimed at enhancing data analysis skills, brought together members of the Countdown Somalia country collaboration team from the Ministry of Health...
The 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2024) held in Nagasaki, Japan, brought together global experts to address pressing health systems challenges. Among the research showcased was a study by the Countdown to 2030 Data & Analysis Center for Effective Coverage, presented by Safia Jiwani, a Countdown researcher from...
The complete results from part one of the urban health study are now available online, and some results from part two were recently presented at the Health Systems Research Symposium. Journal of Urban Health Supplement Countdown undertook a multi-country study in sub-Saharan Africa to understand how living in urban slums...
We are excited to spotlight the inspiring stories from our inaugural Countdown to 2030 Fellowship Program! Launched in 2023, the fellowship aims to build research and analytical expertise to monitor and track progress in delivering lifesaving interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N) across Countdown...
This post expands on comments made by Cheikh Faye and others during a webinar organized by The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in November 2024. Dr. Faye is director of the West Africa office for the African Population and Health Research Center and director of Countdown to 2030....
On Friday, November 1, 2024, the Countdown to 2030 Uganda Country Collaboration team, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Health’s Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization (UNEPI) and Makerere University School of Public Health, held a hybrid immunization evidence dissemination meeting. The session was titled “Using Routine Health Facility...
On October 3, 2024, the Zimbabwe Countdown collaboration team participated in the country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care technical meeting on National Maternal and Perinatal Deaths Surveillance and Response as a member of the National Technical Working Group on Reproductive Health. The meeting’s objectives were to review the statistics...
From October 28th to 31st, The Countdown collaboration team of Chad organized an analytical workshop on Indicators of Maternal Deaths and Unsafe Abortion at the University of N’Djamena. This workshop brought toge the different key stakeholders such as the Faculty of Human Health Sciences of the University of...
From October 15 -17, 2024, the Countdown to 2030 project team conducted a technical support supervision visit to Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Institute of Population Studies-University of Liberia (IPS-UL), aimed to improve data quality and promote data use in health decision-making. On Tuesday, October 15,...
Higher institutional birth rates and improved analytic methods are making it more feasible to use health facility data to estimate maternal mortality and stillbirth in sub-Saharan Africa. Countdown researchers from 10 African countries gathered in Tanzania in September to compare data and identify strategies for improving data analysis and use....
This blog post expands on comments that Jennifer Requejo made at MOMENTUM and the Child Health Task Force (CHTF)’s live event on September 16, 2024. Dr. Requejo is a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Senior Monitoring and Evaluation specialist at the Global Financing...
This blog post expands on comments that Agbessi Amouzou made at PMNCH’s Accountability Breakfast in September 2024. Dr. Amouzou is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and leads Countdown’s effective coverage data & analysis center. Watch a recording of the event: As the World...
On September 17 – 18, 2024, the Countdown to 2030 project team held a technical meeting on Improving the Measurement of Maternal and Perinatal Mortality Rates in the Population through Health Facility Data at Johari Rotana Hotel, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The objectives of the meeting included; Sharing and discussing...
This blog post presents key findings from Roland Mady’s presentation at the International Conference on Children and their Families, using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys which took place September 2-3, 2024, in Bristol, UK. Mady is a researcher with Countdown to 2030 and a research associate at the Johns Hopkins...
This blog post by Godfred Adero , a Countdown researcher, summarizes key findings from the urban health study in Nairobi, Kenya. Adequate neonatal Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) services are critical to ensure that newborn lives are saved and neonatal mortality targets are met. Countless newborn lives are still lost in...
From August 26-30, 2024, the Countdown to 2030 project on Immunization Coverage and Inequalities held its first annual multi-country analytical workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop gathered over 50 experts, including researchers, academics, and public health professionals, from 26 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa to address the critical issues of...
On Friday, August 02, 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo country collaboration team organized a meeting to present and share the analysis of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health indicators (CHARTBOOK). The Chartbook is a collection of graphs with key results and interpretations. Chaired by the Secretary General for...
Following Countdown 2030’s annual meeting, held in Kigali from April 22 to 26, 2024, the country teams led by ISSP, organized a meeting with various members of the Technical Working Group (TWG). The results were produced using routine data from health facilities related to maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent reproductive...
From August 26 – 30, 2024, Countdown’s Immunization Coverage and Inequalities: Strengthening of Evidence and Analytical Capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa Project will hold a multi-country analysis workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The workshop’s purpose is for country teams to finalize and synthesize their results from the different analyses and develop...
On Jul 25, 2024, The Immunization Coverage and Inequalities Project: Strengthening of evidence and analytical capacity in sub-Saharan Africa held a progress review workshop with the 26 collaborating country teams and representatives from Gavi, WHO and UNICEF. The virtual workshop aimed at reviewing health facility data received from the collaborating...
As part of the multi-country study on urban health, Countdown collaborations in Senegal, Zambia, Kenya, and Burkina Faso collected data around the experiences of maternal and newborn health care among women residing in urban slums. Urban health is a pressing concern, particularly in rapidly growing cities where unplanned settlements often...
July 22 – 26,2024, The Countdown team provided technical support at a report writing workshop for the Quality of Care: Health Facility Assessment. This is in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, National Council for Population and Development, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, UNFPA Kenya, WHO Kenya among...
On July 4, 2024, the Ghana Countdown to 2030 project collaboration team held a national dissemination workshop to share findings and progress of the work done. Overall, this dissemination highlighted the importance of using data to drive discussions and ensure evidence-based decisions. The workshop provided a forum for key stakeholders...
Following the 2024 annual meeting in April, country collaboration teams have finalized short reports from key reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N) indicators in 26 African countries between 2019 - 2023. These chartbooks outline data quality assessment, national coverage of antenatal care, maternal and newborn health,...
Achieving gender equality remains a critical goal for efforts in global development and health, yet data to inform progress toward this goal has often been absent or unused. To advance gender measurement on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N), Countdown to 2030, is collaborating with the...
From June 26 to 27, 2024, Countdown to 2030 researchers participated in the Global Public Health International Conference convened by University of Manitoba’s Institute for Global Public Health in Winnipeg, Canada. The conference aimed at reflecting on how the University of Manitoba and other academic institutions can effectively contribute to...
The International Journal for Equity in Health (IJEqH) invites authors to submit abstracts for their upcoming collection, “Progress in reducing inequalities in health-related SDGs in the post-pandemic.” Priority will be given to authors from low- and middle-income countries, with the possibility of requesting a reduction or waiver of publication fees. ...
On May 28, 2024, the multicountry study on immunization coverage and inequalities held a virtual inception meeting with various stakeholders including representatives from the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and representatives from African country collaborations. The immunization study’s...
Calling for better primary health care for children to achieve SDGs for child survival Renewed investments in primary health care systems to provide essential services to all children are needed, especially for countries that are off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 3.2.1, concludes a new technical brief released...
Routine health facility data are essential sources for real-time monitoring of the coverage of health services for national and local planning and programming. They are frequent, timely and available at local levels. However, they are under utilized due to data quality issues and challenges in determining appropriate denominators for coverage...
The Countdown 2030 for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (CD2030) has launched in 2024 a Fellowship Program to strengthen research and analytical capacities for monitoring and tracking the progress of life-saving interventions for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) in CD2030 collaborating countries in Africa. Every...
Seven positive outlier countries reduced maternal and newborn mortality during 2000-2020 through: Increasing contact with maternity services; Improving quality of those services; Reducing fertility and increasing access to safe abortion; and Strengthening government commitment, resources, financing, and progressive implementation and learning. These findings from the maternal newborn health (MNH) exemplars...
From April 22- 26, 2024, Countdown to 2030 convened its 2024 annual meeting in Kigali, Rwanda under the theme, “Producing Reliable National and SubNational Health Statistics with a Focus on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N).” The meeting was hosted by African Population and Health Research Center...
One of the researchers from the Countdown collaboration in Senegal was recently appointed the country’s Minister of Health and Social Action. Dr. Ibrahima Sy was the principal investigator of the Countdown urban health study in Senegal and recently published about this work (Spatial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Cesarean Section Deliveries...
Ten emerging African researchers will form the 2024 cohort of the Countdown to 2030 (CD2030) fellowship program, participating in a yearlong training program to advance research on a wide range of topics related to Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N). Below is the list of selected...
African researchers – and particularly Countdown to 2030 country collaboration team members – are encouraged to submit their analyses of routine health facility data for inclusion in a side session at the African Population Conference which will be held in Malawi in May 2024. The session will discuss effective methods...
The USAID MOMENTUM project published a new factsheet about all three types of country profiles – reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH), equity, and early childhood development. This two-page document describes what the country profiles are, why they are valuable, who should use them, and how they can...
A new report synthesizes the learning from the analysis conducted during and after the annual meeting held in 2023. Some key findings were that: Reporting rates were high in most countries, and districts with extreme outliers were uncommon, but some issues with internal consistency of the data were apparent. Calculation...
The Niger country collaboration has been successful at maintaining a long-running scientific collaboration, producing high-quality research for multiple audiences, and sharing this information with decisionmakers. Download the data uptake series in English Download the data uptake series in French Niger is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s countries which has been repeatedly...
Although the world is struggling to maintain past gains for women and children, as 2023 ends Countdown still has a lot to celebrate: We hosted our largest in-person Countdown annual meeting to date, with more than 185 participants in Dakar, Senegal, in June, in collaboration with the Global Financing Facility...
Countdown has launched a new partnership with Gavi, UNICEF and the World Health Organization to strengthen analytical capacity to measure coverage and equity of immunization and to improve the reporting of this data, using multiple data sources. This will include measurement of subnational coverage, in order to develop strategies to...
Three online digital health platforms for tracking progress and maintaining accountability – the Immunization Agenda 2030 scorecard, the Global Financing Facility data portal , and the Countdown to 2030 country profiles – were discussed in a webinar on December 5. The recording is available online: Download the slide decks from...
November 4-8, 2023, Countdown to 2030 project team participated in the Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan 2018–2023 (KHSSIP 2018-2023) end-term review in Naivasha, Kenya.The review was focused on an analytical review of all relevant data available on service coverage, utilization, and access. The Ministry of Health steered this exercise that...
The Countdown to 2030 Multi-Country Analysis Project: Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) strategies for essential and emergency obstetric and neonatal care is holding its 4th MNH workshop in Lusaka, Zambia, Nov 28 – Dec 1, 2023. The purpose of this workshop is for 21 African countries teams to finalize and...
A free webinar on 5 December will provide information and discussion around three digital platforms that track key health indicators for women and children: Immunization Agenda 2030 Scorecard Global Financing Facility Data Portal Countdown to 2030 Country Profiles This one-hour session will discuss how these tools help disseminate population health...
On November 27, 2023, Countdown to 2030 held an engaging side event on reducing inequalities in maternal, newborn and child health in Africa’s cities at the 3rd International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) organized by Africa CDC and Africa Union in Lusaka Zambia. During the session, Countdown to...
Applications to join the 2024 cohort of Countdown fellows are open until December 17, 2023. This one-year fellowship enables African researchers to strengthen their analytical capacities for monitoring reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. Eligible applicants must: Be a national of an African country with an ongoing Countdown collaboration....
On November 6-11, 2023, the Countdown to 2030 consortium members from APHRC, Johns Hopkins University, and Pelotas University, attended the 2023 annual HMIS workshop, organised by the West African Health Organization (WAHO) at Azalai Hotel, Guinea-Bissau. The workshop aimed at promoting the production, sharing and use of quality health information...
Those attending the Conference on Public Health in African (CPHIA) in November 2023 are invited to join a session about new findings related to urban health for mothers, newborns and children in sub-Saharan Africa, hosted by Countdown and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). Reducing Inequalities in Maternal,...
This post was originally published on the PMNCH website and was written by Sophie Arseneault, Jonathan D. Klein, and Jennifer Requejo on behalf of the PMNCH Accountability Working Group. On October 11th and 12th, stakeholders will come together at the Global Forum for Adolescents, a historic gathering of youth, advocates,...
This 9-minute video presents some highlights and reflections from attendees of Countdown’s 2023 annual meeting, which convened more than 185 health experts and researchers from across sub-Saharan along with global technical experts. Speakers in order of appearance are Pamela Rao from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Brenabe Gningue from...
Written by Emma Sacks, Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, Jennifer Requejo Download this technical note On 20 September, 2023 the UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response will be held with the intended outcome of a declaration aimed at mobilizing political will at the national, regional, and international levels. This...
This article was originally posted on the PMNCH website and was written by Jennifer Requejo, Jonathan D. Klein, and Sophie Arseneault, PMNCH Accountability Working Group Chair and Vice Chairs. On September 21st, stakeholders will come together at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the importance of aligning investments on...
Leaders from health and public policy organizations convened in New Delhi to discuss the national report from the Exemplars in Maternal and Newborn Health India study on August 23. The national analysis, as well as in-depth studies in six states, show how multiple drivers contributed to the large reduction in...
The Countdown 2030 for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (CD2030) project will hold its first training for the 2023 cohort from August 7 to 25, 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The training’s objective is to provide fellows with analytical skills that allow them to undertake their research project, data analysis and...
The Child Survival Action initiative calls for renewed efforts to address inequities in child survival, particularly in the 54 countries that are off track to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3. The action plan includes a theory of change and results framework, which were presented in an online conference in June...
“We are very proud of you,” said Dr. Cheikh Faye, project director of Countdown to 2030 and head of the West African regional office for the African Population and Health Research Center, addressing the group of more than 185 researchers from 22 countries gathered for the project’s annual meeting in...
Ten researchers from across sub-Saharan Africa have been selected for the inaugural group of Countdown fellows and will spend the next 12 months developing individual research projects on topics that include family planning, effective coverage, immunization, and health facility statistics. The homepage for the fellowship is available here. The Countdown...
Countdown researchers shared findings from the maternal newborn health (MNH) exemplars studies and discussed goals for the future during plenary sessions at the International Maternal and Newborn Health Conference in May 2023. MNH Exemplars Plenary During the initial plenary session, the seven countries...
“Our country has made huge strides in improving access to health services and improvements in health outcomes,” said Dr. Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, Ethiopia’s minister of health and an obstetrician-gynecologist, at a December 2022 workshop organized by the Countdown collaboration, “Ethiopia’s health indicators have been remarkably improved from one of the worst in...
Reprinted from lefaso.net, Translated by Countdown 2030 The Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP) organized a workshop to disseminate the results of Phase II of the GFF-Countdown to 2030 collaboration project in Burkina Faso this Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Ouagadougou. The aim was to share the project’s...
It was feasible to create a new system to collect data at the community level in Mozambique and aggregate it for use in health planning, according to a journal supplement written and edited by Countdown researchers and published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Health. This has tremendous...
Written by Countdown researchers Jennifer Requejo of Global Financing Facility and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Aluisio Barros of the International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, and Cheikh Faye of the African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya As global experts and leaders...
In addition to the presentations at IMNHC which are based on Countdown to 2030’s work, several Countdown researchers are presenting work from other research projects that is closely related to Countdown’s mission. On Tuesday, 9 May, presentations include: Using health systems data to develop measures of service quality for postnatal...
Countdown researchers will present findings from the maternal newborn health (MNH) exemplars multicountry study and other projects at the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) in Cape Town, South Africa, 8-11 May 2023. Presentations Related to MNH Exemplars A plenary on 9 May will provide an overview of the exemplar...
Countdown researchers have summarized areas of progress and stagnation around three key themes related to maternal-newborn health, in order to contribute to discussions at the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) in May 2023. Countdown researchers have a paper in preprint that proposes a framework integrating maternal, stillbirth and neonatal...
On March 21st, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released a new strategic approach to improving maternal and child survival, and reflected on the past decade’s progress and achievements. Three Countdown researchers presented at the event: Ties Boerma from the University of Manitoba, Jennifer Requejo from Johns Hopkins University,...
About 10 mid-career researchers will be selected for the inaugural cohort of Countdown fellows. Fellows will receive mentoring that will enable them to develop and complete a research project. To be eligible, applicants must: Be based at a Countdown collaboration institution in a country with an ongoing Countdown collaboration. Have...
Findings from the Bangladesh maternal newborn health exemplars study are now available from the Exemplars in Global Health website and have been accepted for publication in the journal BMJ Global Health. Improved availability and quality of health services, plus improvements of other socioeconomic indicators – such as access to electricity...
Uganda’s extensive work in monitoring progress in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and other health services includes regular comprehensive annual health monitoring reports by the ministry of health, the district league table system to track local performance in place since 2003, and high-quality research by Makerere University....
Kenya’s 47 counties form the axis of planning and implementation of health programs, and progress is monitored at the county level. This is a challenging task, since population-based survey data are collected only once every five years. Health facility data are available for regular monitoring, but estimating service coverage from...
The three country profiles have been updated with data from 2022, plus new regional profiles, and are now available on the Countdown to 2030 website. All the profiles are derived from public datasets, such as the Demographic Health surveys. Watch the recording of the webinar: “It is vital that we...
To get a sense of what it’s like to attend a Countdown to 2030 analysis workshop, watch this short video: Since 2017 countdown to 2030 has organized nine virtual workshops and 17 in-person workshops with representatives from 65 countries. Footage was filmed during a workshop that took place in Nairobi...
Countdown to 2030 will expand the number of country collaborations, launch three multi-country analysis projects, and mentor African researchers within the Countdown network through a new fellowship program, as it enters a new funding phase for 2023-2026. The Countdown collaboration will continue its global monitoring, measurement and accountability work, such...
Countdown researchers published 31 peer-reviewed articles in 2022, advancing knowledge around measurement of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, including: how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted use of health services in Africa; global trends in child survival and thriving; the relationships between gender, ethnicity and health; factors related to coverage...
On February 9th Countdown 2030 and the Paternership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) will release new country profiles for 2022, with a webinar to present the latest findings. To register for the webinar, click here and enter your details. For the first time, some regional data will be...
Methods for calculating effective coverage, which is also called quality-adjusted coverage, continue to be refined, and this approach is increasingly being used to inform country-level decision-making. The recording of a satellite session titled, “Measuring effective coverage and quality of care to improve the health of women, children, and adolescents in...
“We say, numbers don't lie,” reflected Charles Michelo, professor at the University of Zambia during a June 2022 dissemination event. “Yet numbers can be hidden. In hospitals, see how many files may be on the floor, inaccessible. This also may be true in our offices: we have the data, and...
The Geospatial Data and Analysis Center (DAC) recently published several resources about population estimation and how it can be applied to vaccine coverage. Here’s a quick summary: In this webinar, Andrew Tatem from WorldPop and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom speak about different approaches to producing population...
Countdown 2030 and the Improve Project will hold a satellite session about effective coverage measurement at the Seventh Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR 2022) in Bogotá, Colombia, on November 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The session will be open to both in-person and virtual conference...
Since 2020 women’s and children’s health has suffered globally from the converging impacts of conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, according to a new United Nations report for which Countdown is a contributing partner. “Almost three years on from the onset of COVID-19, the pandemic’s longterm impact on the...
Health systems are complex; thus, many research approaches are used understand and assess them. Three new Countdown to 2030 briefs aim to support researchers and policy makers, to understand the value of and approaches available using health policy and systems research in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. These briefs address...
The Countdown country collaboration in Tanzania met September 25-26, 2022, at Ifakara Health Institute in Dar es Salaam to develop its plan for years 2023-2025. Plans including supporting the Ministry of Health with monitoring regional and national progress based on the Health Sector Strategic Plan July 2021-June 2026 (HSSP V)...
(Note: this is part 2 of an article about calculating denominators. The first article is here, and a related article discusses how to assess data quality before beginning this kind of analysis.) If a health service is used by nearly all women or children and reporting completeness is near 100%, then...
Health facility data typically have provided only the numerator for indicators of interest, which makes it difficult to interpret time trends. But it is possible to calculate denominators based on two methods: population projection estimates and service utilization. This article explains how to calculate denominators using population data, and a...
Resources to assess the quality of routine health facility data related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) are now available, based on resources developed for a workshop hosted by Countdown and the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in Nairobi, Kenya, in June 2022 . Data from individual health...
With lots of Stata, Powerpoint, simultaneous translation, and expansive Kenyan scenery, Countdown to 2030 and our partners the Global Financing Facility (GFF) convened a group of more than 100 experts from across Africa to share best practices for analyzing health facility data and to conduct analysis in a collaborative setting....
The COVID-19 pandemic led to 2%–6%, reductions in use of maternal, newborn and child health services and 7%–17% reductions in outpatient consultations and hospitalizations in 12 African countries during March to December 2020, according to a Countdown study published in BMJ Global Health. The months immediately following the start of...
When assessing inequalities between subgroups, we’re often interested in relative measures of inequality. The simple relative measure is the ratio, in which we divide group one by group two. But what if we have more than two subgroups, and we want to consider all of them in our relative measure?...
Holistic action is needed to address reproductive, maternal, childhood, and adolescent health, as well as nutrition and development, according to the Optimising Child and Adolescent Health and Development series published in The Lancet on April 27, 2022. Arguing that global progress on child health had stalled even before the COVID-19...
This brief summarizes describes how a report by the Countdown collaboration in Pakistan was used to build consensus around key priorities and generate change in policy and programs. Content of the brief is reprinted below: Development of the report Pakistan does not have an annual review of progress and performance...
This blog post summarizes the findings of an article that Wendt and co-authors published in SSM – Population Health in September 2021. This blog post is reprinted from the PMNCH website; the original post is here. By Andrea Wendt and Cesar Victora, University of Pelotas, Brazil; PMNCH ART constituency member...
AlignMNH convened a virtual meeting on April 4-7 to share the data around measuring progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, providing respectful maternal and newborn care, and strengthening quality of care. Several Countdown to 2030 researchers presented and helped plan the event. In the first session, Aluisio Barros from the...
Uganda has made steady progress during 2015/16-2019/20 on several key indicators of the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) continuum of care, but most did not reach the set targets, according to an endline review report published by the Countdown country collaboration in Uganda, in partnership with the...
One of the key methods employed by the Health Policy and Systems Data & Analysis Center is the policy and program timeline tool. In this 7-minute tutorial video, Mary Kinney from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa describes the timeline’s purpose and how to use it. The purpose of...
The Countdown collaboration contributed to the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and nutrition scientific literature through four journal supplements and more than 20 standalone papers. The papers included topics that have long been central to Countdown’s work, such as child survival, and topics that have come...
Countdown to 2030 for Women’s Children’s and Adolescent’s Health and partner organizations published new and updated country profiles for: Reproductive, maternal, newborn child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and nutrition Equity Early childhood development The profiles were first shared during a webinar on December 14, 2021, in collaboration with the Partnership...
Countdown is conducting a series of analysis workshops to understand RMNCH in 10 African cities Recent survey data suggests that progress toward the targets of the sustainable development goals related to maternal, newborn and child health in several cities in sub-Saharan Africa has been lagging.To understand this issue more thoroughly,...
The Countdown in Pakistan, led by the Health Services Academy in Islamabad, and partner organizations has supported the Ministry of Health Services Regulation and Coordination in the development of a framework of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of progress toward implementation of the universal health coverage (UHC) basic package and equity...
A new three-part webinar series explains the key concepts of health financing analysis and provides step-by-step examples of how to conduct this analysis. These webinars were developed for Countdown GFF and maternal newborn health exemplar countries but may be useful for anyone who is trying to obtain a better understand...
The need to use routine health facility data for decision-making is stronger than ever, and advances in analytic methods have made the data easier to interpret, according to series of articles published this month in the BMC journal Health Services Research. Countdown to 2030 announced the journal supplement with a...
Global improvements have been measured in adolescent health during the past decade, yet wide inequalities exist for many indicators when data are disaggregated by gender, household wealth and urban-rural residence, demonstrates a supplement of six articles and a commentary published in BMC Reproductive Health. Countdown to 2030 hosted a webinar...
Health financing – where the money in the health system comes from, how the money is combined or pooled, and how health workers are paid – is a key consideration for understanding how health systems function. Josephine Borghi, Catherine Pitt, Melisa Martinez-Alvarez, Peter Binyaruka, and Federica Margini from the...
Traditionally antenatal care (ANC) has been measured as coverage indicator in RMNCAH+N programs, such as the number of women who received any ANC or received 4+ ANC visits. However, from Demographic Health Survey and other data sources it is clear that critical gaps in antenatal care quality often occur ....
Countdown to 2030 is participating in the AlignMNH Collective’s virtual opening forum on April 20-21, an event that the aims to foster solutions-focused discussion and promote the sharing of evidence, knowledge, and experiences in the promotion of global maternal and newborn health. With less than 10 years remaining to...
Uneven progress is occurring toward global targets for reducing maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths at the regional and country level, according to a report that Countdown to 2030 and partners have released as part of the AlignMNH opening forum. However, all the world’s regions have made progress in the...
We have updated our website to describe our current work and to provide more resources to the global community of people working to improve the health of women children and adolescents. Countdown began a new phase of work in 2020 with a revised project structure which is explained here. Earlier...
In a one-hour webinar on March 23, Asha George and Mary Kinney from University of the Western Cape in South Africa gave an overview of: Countdown’s previous work around health systems and policy, Study designs and conceptual frameworks applied in health policy analysis, and Some examples of how these concepts...
Pakistan’s recent surges in antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, care seeking for common childhood illnesses and immunization coverage are notable. However, slow reductions in mortality rates, combined with stagnant contraceptive prevalence rates, mean that the country is not on pace to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal targets by 2030, based...
Effective coverage measures the proportion of women and children that are receiving the benefits of live-saving interventions. It can be measured by linking household survey data with health facility readiness assessments.In March 2021, Agbessi Amouzo, Aboudalaye Maiga, Elizabeth Hazel, Safia Jiwani, Emily Wilson, and Melinda Munos from the Institute for...
A series of three article and one commentary on maternal and child undernutrition reinforce the need to prevent undernutrition during the 1000 days from conception to age 2 years, with interventions both within and outside the health sector. Countdown researchers and their co-authors also issued a specific call for action...
Women and children are particularly vulnerable in armed conflict, affected by both the direct and indirect consequences of violence, destruction and displacement, with both immediate and long-term implications for their health and well-being. This collection of articles in Conflict and Health reports on a set of case studies conducted by members...
In this webinar, Andy Tatem, Natalia Garavito, and Winfred Dotse-Gborgbortsi from WorldPop at the University of Southampton present an overview of available resources for incorporating geographical data into evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAHN). Outline of the webinar, by time [minute:second] [1:23] Overview...
Health facility data is an important component of many health evaluations but can be complicated to use because of data quality and completeness issues, outlier values, and lack of clear denominators. Cheikh Faye from African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Martin Mutua from APHRC, Abdoulaye Maiga from Johns Hopkins...
The Pakistan Health Service Academy published its first annual report series, as part of the Countdown collaboration, assessing progress in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health ….. read more https://www.countdown2030.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Pakistan-CD-report-2020.pdf
Two new videos related to equity analysis are available on Countdown to 2030’s youtube channel. In an hour long webinar from January 2021, presenters from the International Center for Equity in Health at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil, present an overview of methods for equity analysis. Topics presented include:...
A Lancet Series, Women’s and Children’s Health in Conflict Settings, discusses the requirements of providing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition services in conflict settings. Drawing upon scholarship from the BRANCH Consortium, the series provides insights into the nature and dynamics of women’s and children’s...
Monday's annual meeting was a great opportunity to share goals and resources, learn more about @thegff strategy, and plan for the future. @aphrc pic.twitter.com/RppoxmeuY3 — Countdown to 2030 (@Countdown2030) November 18, 2020 On November 17, 2020, Countdown to 2030 (CD2030) and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) organized...
The Countdown to 2030 team published a series of analyses titled, “Measuring and Monitoring Coverage and Quality of Care in Low and Middle Income Countries”. Journal of Global Health published the articles in 2020, and in October Countdown hosted a webinar to provide an overview of the findings. Topic included...
Leaving No Woman and Child Behind: Inequalities in Nutrition Coverage and Status Among Women, Children and Adolescents in West Africa Food and nutrition security, particularly for children, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age remain a priority for all ECOWAS Member States as there has been limited progress in achieving...
EWEC Progress Report 2020 Protect the Progress: Rise, Refocus, Recover highlights that since the Every Woman Every Child movement was launched 10 years ago, spearheaded by the United Nations Secretary-General, there has been remarkable progress in improving the health of the world’s women, children and adolescents. However, conflict, climate instability...
Country profiles present in one place the latest evidence to assess country progress in improving women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. An interactive version of the data is presented in the Country Profiles. View and download the Country Profiles, Data Sets, and Sources and Methods of data collection from the Country...
The Together for Nutrition: West African Data Forum was convened in Saly, Senegal in February 2020 to discuss best practices for nutrition improvement in the region. The group was led by Transform Nutrition West Africa, an initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and also included participants such as Countdown to...
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected life around the globe and the work of the Countdown to 2030 is no exception. The impact is felt by women, children and adolescents around the world, directly and indirectly. Health and social services may be disrupted and communities, households and individuals are often affected...
Four methods have previously been used to track aid for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH). The new Mushkoka2 algorithm includes innovations to produce accurate, predictable, transparent, and up-to-date estimates to analyze donor and recipient perspectives on use of donor aid for RMNCH. New findings show that 46% of...
The BMJ’s new collection, Leaving No One Behind provides comprehensive reports on the progress made to meet 2030 global targets for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. Read more Press release
On November 2019, the 8th African Population Conference was held in Entebbe, Uganda with the theme, “Harnessing Africa’s Population Dynamics for Sustainable Development: 25 Years after Cairo and beyond.” Countdown to 2030 members made 4 presentations about ongoing analysis from different RMNCAH data analysis workshops which had been conducted over...
The concept of nurturing care for young children was outlined in the 2017 Lancet series Advancing Early Childhood Development: From Science to Scale and developed into a framework by WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank collaborating with a large number of academics and representatives of civil society. The Nurturing Care Framework...
In June 2019, BMJ Global Health published a supplement with six papers by the Countdown to 2030 to address the challenges in measurement and monitoring of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition (RMNCH&N) in the context of the sustainable development goals. The six-paper series seeks to advance the...
After two successful analysis workshops organized in November 2017 and July 2018 that brought together government officials and academics from ESA countries, APHRC has supported the dissemination and knowledge translation of the evidence generated further to the analysis workshops. In Uganda, APHRC supported the implementation of in-country dissemination activities targeting...
Global Symposium on Health Systems Research 2018 Satellite Session Liverpool, United Kingdom Leaving no woman, no child behind: what evidence on inequalities for RMNCH is needed to advocate and act?” Date: Monday, October 8, 2018 Time: 9:00-17:00 Location: ACC Liverpool, UK – Room 3B Kings Dock, Liverpool L3...
Countdown to 2030 lets the data speak. Read more in these recent thought pieces published in the Lancet: Countdown Commentary (May 2018) on analyzing inequalities in child mortality. Countdown Viewpoint (April 2018) on monitoring country progress and achievements through global predictions.
Research Priorities for RMNCAH – results from the Countdown to 2030 Measurement Conference Stellenbosch, South Africa January 31 – February 1, 2018 The objectives of the Improving measurement of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health & nutrition conference were to: Take stock of the current practices, advances and critical...
In The Lancet Global Health, Marilia Mesenburg and colleagues present Countdown analyses of the ethnic gaps in coverage of reproductive, maternal, and child health (RMNCH) services across 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. This important study could help to address health equity problems for ethnic minority populations in these regions.”...
Tracking donor aid for global health goals: A systematic comparison of four approaches applied to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. How much aid really supports reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH)? New research published in The Lancet Global Health shows that four high-profile estimates – from the Countdown...
Strengthening the tracking of official development assistance and domestic financing for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health Countdown to 2030 and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) organized a consultation on the tracking of global and domestic financing for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH) at the London...
11 Dec 2017 Countdown to 2030 launched its detailed country and equity profiles on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health for the 81 countries that account for 95% of all maternal deaths and 90% of all child deaths at the PMNCH Board retreat in Lilongwe, Malawi on December 13th. Malawi stands out because of...
07 December 2017 The second regional initiative was launched to generate evidence and strengthen country analytical capacity for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health at the African Population Health Research Centre (APHRC) in Nairobi, Kenya, 27 November – 1 December 2017. 19 countries nominated senior analysts from the Ministry of Health,...
04 April, 2017 The Countdown Financing Technical Workgroup has recently published their methodology for creating a database that can be used for analyzing official development assistance and private grants to RMNCH, including suggestions for how the database can be used by others.
03 November, 2016 New analyses from CD colleagues the Federal University of Pelotas conclude that a composite coverage index, based on the average value of separate coverage indicators, is easy to calculate and can be useful in monitoring progress and inequalities in universal health coverage.
28 October, 2016 "Measuring Inequalities in Coverage of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health Interventions" was the title of the first Countdown to 2030 Regional Hub Workshop convened in Medellín, Colombia, from October 18-22, with 21 participants from 10 LAC countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,...
14 October 2016 CD colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have published a dataset containing 2.1 million records used to generate estimates of official development assistance (ODA) to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) based upon donor, recipient country and activity type between 2003–2013.
12 September 2016 As Countdown to 2030 is launched, a supplement in the British Medical Journal published 12th September 2016, maps the challenges and opportunities for the SDG era. The supplement, entitled Countdown to 2015 country case studies: analysing progress towards maternal and child survival in the Millennium Development Goal era reflects on the...
9 September 2016 Access to water and sanitation during childbirth is poor across low and middle-income countries. Even when women travel to health facilities for childbirth, they are not guaranteed access to basic WATSAN infrastructure. Hygiene during childbirth is essential to the health of mothers and newborns, irrespective of where...
9 June 2016 Access to water and sanitation during childbirth is poor across low and middle-income countries. Even when women travel to health facilities for childbirth, they are not guaranteed access to basic WATSAN infrastructure. Hygiene during childbirth is essential to the health of mothers and newborns, irrespective of where...
9 June 2016 Despite long standing conflict and poverty, Afghanistan has made reasonable progress in its reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health indicators over the last decade based on contributions of factors within and outside the health sector.
21 January 2016 Nearly a third of Malawi’s population lives in severe poverty, but the eyes of the global health community have turned to this small, land-locked nation of 16 million because it is one of only a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4...
26 September 2015 At the annual RMNCH Accountability Breakfast, held in conjunction with the yearly meeting of the UN General Assembly, which this year included the historic Summit for Sustainable Development, nearly 300 partners gathered to reflect on what accountability has delivered for women’s and children’s health, and on the...
July 27, 2015 Over 30% of Malawi's population lives in severe poverty, yet it is one of only a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa on track to achieve MDG 4 by reducing under-5 mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. New evidence from a Countdown case study, which sought to...
June 24, 2015 In September 2013, Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health and UNICEF jointly announced that Ethiopia had succeeded in reducing its under-5 mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2012. Ethiopia had already achieved Millennium Development Goal 4, two years ahead of the MDG deadline.
June 16, 2015 New Countdown case study explores how this happened, and why maternal and newborn survival progress is much slower
June 16, 2015 New Countdown analysis shows RMNCH aid flows up in 2011-2012
November 26, 2014 Countdown to 2015 continues to move forward on a series of in-depth Country Case Studies that seek to understand and explain how progress on women’s and children’s health was achieved in priority countries. On November 26th, a research team led by the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima presented...
September 21, 2014 For the fourth consecutive year, Countdown to 2015 was co-host of a high-level meeting that put women's and children's health at the front of the agenda for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. On the Sunday morning immediately before the General Assembly convened, senior...
June 30, 2014 Many developing countries have taken substantive action to save women’s and children’s lives, but vast areas of “unfinished business” still need to be addressed, according to a new report released at the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Partners’ Forum and summarized in The Lancet today....
London, 30 June 2014 The Lancet today published two new peer-reviewed Countdown papers, with their release timed to coincide with the launch of the 2014 Countdown Report at the PMNCH Partners’ Forum, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from June 30 – July 1, 2014.
15 May 2014 President JM Kikwete of Tanzania, co-chair for the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health (COIA), recently launched the Tanzanian "Countdown to 2015" and "A Promised Renewed" in relation to maternal, newborn and child survival in Tanzania at a high level event held in...
22 September, 2013 Ministers and government officials, leaders of UN agencies, NGOs and advocates, academic experts, and nearly 150 others came together in New York to vow greater efforts on accountability for women’s and children’s health. “Accountability for Results: Keeping our Promises to Women and Children” marked the second annual Sunday accountability...
28 August, 2013 More than 60 representatives of national parliaments, civil society, ministries of health, media, and development agencies from Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda met this week in Nairobi, Kenya, in a workshop that aimed to build their capacities to undertake budget advocacy for improved women’s and...
27 May 2013 Rapid expansion of programs to prevent HIV transmission to babies and vaccinate children show how results can be achieved in relatively little time
20 February 2013 To support countries in undertaking robust and effective Country Countdown processes, Countdown has developed Country Countdown—Accelerating progress to 2015 and beyond: A guide for countries and partners.
22 September 2012 There is a growing sense of urgency that some of the poorest countries in the world will not reach 2015 targets for reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child survival. The Lancet marked the 67th UN General Assembly meeting by publishing a series of new Countdown papers…
13 June 2012Countdown launched its 2012 Report on June 14, 2012, at the Child Survival Call to Action, a two-day high-level meeting in Washington, D.C. This conference, convened by the governments of the U.S., Ethiopia, and India in collaboration with UNICEF, charted a course toward ending preventable child deaths around...
31 March 2012The global health community must increase its efforts to ensure that key maternal, newborn, and child health interventions are adequately reaching all social groups…
31 March 2012Countdown released Accountability for Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival, with updated profiles on 73 countries, at the IPU Assembly in Kampala…
22 November 2011A report by Countdown, Health Metrics Network, UNICEF, and WHO examines opportunities and challenges to effective monitoring of core MNCH indicators…
12 January 2011A Nigerian government report on newborn health showcased the power of Countdown data and methods for catalyzing action…
13 April 2010Countdown to 2015 : New Landscape Analysis released for the United Nations’ special meeting on maternal, newborn and child health
29 March 2010Countdown to 2015, PMNCH, Inter-Parliamentary Union and Government of Thailand host Special Session and Field Trip
7 April 2009Special Session of Countdown to 2015 - Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival at the 120th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
19 April 2008G8 action urged to avert 6 million mother and child deaths every year
16 April 2008Critical health care fails to reach most women and children in high mortality countries despite gains in fighting child killer diseases
