Since winning the award for best scientific output among the 36 African countries at the 2026 annual meeting, the Burkina Faso Countdown team has been using their analysis to stimulate productive discussions with stakeholders and decision makers. First, they met with the Minister of Health and his staff on July...

The Countdown to 2030 Initiative held the 2026 Country Annual Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from June 29 to July 3, 2026. Held under the theme, “Strengthening Country-Led Evidence for Policy, Equity and Health System Impact,” the meeting brought together policymakers, researchers, Countdown country teams, and partners from 36 African...

From June 23-26, 2026, the Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health Initiative held a four-day training for Cohort 3 of its Fellowship Program, focused on policy engagement, knowledge translation, and strategic communication. The capacity-strengthening forum aimed to enhance the fellows’ capacity to communicate their key research findings,...

This year’s Countdown to 2030 Country Annual Meeting will convene representatives from 36 African countries to complete country-level analyses that will renew the focus on the health needs of African women, children and adolescents. “We are delighted to host the Countdown Initiative’s annual meeting and to contribute to this important...

Across Africa, the challenge is no longer the absence of data but the persistent gap between generating evidence and using it effectively in policy and practice. Despite decades of research on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N), African-led evidence remains under-utilized in decision-making. Limited domestic research...

With deep sadness, we share that Countdown researcher Mr. Roland Mesmer Gouda Mady passed away on May 14, 2026, at the age of 38 from gastric cancer. Mady was a statistician and a valued member of the country collaborations in Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo and Côte d’Ivoire. “Roland was...

  From April 24 to 25, 2026, the Countdown to 2030 participated in the WAHO Partners’ Forum and the 27th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Assembly of Health Ministers in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The high-level regional convening brought together ministers of health, regional institutions, development partners, program leaders, researchers, and...

This post was written by Rogers Nsubuga, lead author of a paper titled, “Maternal and child healthcare coverage and trends: refugee vs. non-refugee districts in Uganda” which was published in the journal Conflict and Health. Nsubuga completed this analysis through the Countdown fellowship program. Uganda hosts Africa’s largest refugee population,...

This post summarizes Dr. Cheikh Faye’s opening and closing remarks during a Countdown webinar on 10 April 2026. Dr. Faye is Countdown’s project director and the head of the West African office of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). The webinar convened global experts to reflect on Countdown’s...

This blog post was written by Aniqa Tasnim Hossain, an associate scientist in icddr,b’s Maternal and Child Health Division and a member of Countdown’s Bangladesh country collaboration. It summarizes the recent paper titled, Using DHIS2 routine data for health system preparedness in resource-limited settings: A Bayesian predictive approach in Bangladesh. Using routine...

At the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference 2026 (IMNHC 2026) held March 23-26, the Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health initiative engaged delegates, calling for a shift from measuring maternal and newborn health coverage to managing systems. The Countdown to 2030 team convened a side session on...

The Countdown to 2030 consortium welcomes the publication of a new scientific article led by the Burkina Faso country team, shedding light on trends and inequalities in modern contraceptive use in relation to family planning policies and programs. The article, titled “Trends and Inequalities in Modern Contraception in Burkina Faso:...

Countdown to 2030 Hosts RMNCAH+N Results Dissemination Workshop at the Prime Minister’s Office On March 12, 2026, the Countdown to 2030 team in Côte d’Ivoire reached a key milestone in promoting data use for decision-making by organizing a dissemination workshop on the results of multicountry analyses of reproductive, maternal, newborn,...

In a significant milestone for public health, the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) successfully hosted Zimbabwe’s first-ever Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) Conference on 4-5 March 2026, at the Hyatt Hotel in Harare. Under the theme “Ending Preventable Maternal and Perinatal Mortality: Lessons...

Countdown to 2030’s series of reports starting in 2005 raised awareness around the unacceptable levels and inequalities in maternal and child mortality. Now, with slowing progress and urgent challenges, independent accountability is as important as ever. On 9 April we are convening a group of global health leaders to discuss...

As part of the family planning multi-country study, a recent article published in the peer-reviewed journal Contraception provides evidence linking women’s empowerment and life-stage to contraceptive method mix across 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Across the region, implants and injectables remain the most used contraceptive methods on average. However, the...

Countdown researchers will host a side session and present in panel sessions at the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) 2026. The conference is taking place 23-26 March in Nairobi, Kenya. The side session will take place on 24 March from 9:45-13:00 in Breakout Room 8 and will present an...

Countdown to 2030 Cohort 2 and 3 fellows pose for a group photo during the 2025 Country Annual Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The Countdown to 2030 fellowship program has supported African researchers in answering meaningful research questions designed to improve the lives of women, children, and adolescents. The first in...

  Since its launch in 2023, the Countdown to 2030 Fellowship program has focused on strengthening sustainable, country-led research and analytical capacity in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N). Fellows are embedded in national institutions and work with technical partners to generate, interpret, and utilize data...

Ethiopia has implemented various strategies and programs during the last two decades to improve the access of the health services to its citizens. While Ethiopia has demonstrated “exemplar” status in expanding access to underserved and rural populations, current data reveals a bimodal health landscape: Rapid progress in central and urban...

Efforts to set global maternal newborn health priorities remain challenged by limited resources and lack of clarity around how to tailor interventions to specific contexts, a group of global experts discussed in a webinar hosted by Align MNH on January 27, 2026.  Countdown to 2030 Director Dr. Cheikh Faye participated...

    Despite upheaval in the global health community, 2025 marked another year of strengthened engagement at the global, regional, and national levels for Countdown. A new Lancet report provided a pulse      check on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. We strengthened regional partnerships in Africa, such as through the...

On March 4-5, 2026, the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), in partnership with the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), the Countdown to 2030 Initiative, the University of Zimbabwe, the Global Financing Facility (GFF), UNICEF, UNFPA, the Zimbabwe Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Paediatric Association...

  A series in the journal Global Health Action offers an independent assessment of the first seven years of the Global Financing Facility’s (GFF). Spearheaded by researchers from Countdown’s health policy and systems data & analysis center, authors reviewed 54 GFF-related plans and projects across 28 countries and conducted in-depth...

From 15 to 21 December 2025, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in collaboration with the national Countdown to 2030 country team, convened the 2025 Annual EPI Review in Matadi, Kongo-Central Province. The meeting incorporated a strategic dissemination session of findings on...

From December 16 to 18, the Countdown to 2030 initiative took part in the annual meeting of the Ouagadougou Partnership (RAPO 2025) in Lomé, Togo, contributing to key policy discussions on the future of family planning in West and Central Africa. As part of its engagement, the African Population and...

December 15 – 19, 2025, The Countdown to 2030 Kenya Country collaboration team held a workshop to develop immunization knowledge products. These products, including fact sheets, policy briefs, and manuscripts, will support immunization advocacy and inform policy for data-driven decision-making in Kenya and beyond. The team comprised representatives from the...

The Sierra Leone Countdown Country Collaboration, led by the Ministry of Health in partnership with Statistics Sierra Leone, the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), and Countdown to 2030, convened national health stakeholders to disseminate findings from a comprehensive five-year review of routine health facility data. The dissemination workshop,...

At Countdown to 2030, we remain committed to strengthening evidence generation for advocacy and accountability in women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health. From November 24 – 27, 2025, we are hosting a workshop for the Zimbabwe Country Collaboration team on communication, documentation, and knowledge translation in operational and implementation research. The...

Since the 2025 annual meeting, the Countdown to 2030 country collaboration in Ethiopia has been promoting data for action, presenting its analyses at three events for Ministry of Health leadership and other key stakeholders within the country.  At the Global Health Innovation and Quality Summit in June, they presented posters...

On 7th November 2025, the Zambia Countdown 2030 collaboration team hosted a dissemination meeting to share insights on performance and progress of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) indicators for the period 2019-2024. The dissemination meeting included key stakeholders from the provincial health offices and various organizations, including...

From 3 to 7 November 2025, the Countdown to 2030 Country Collaboration in Mauritania, with technical support from the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), convened a national data analysis workshop focused on Sexual and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (SRMNIA-Nutrition). The workshop marked a key...

From October 27 – 30, 2025, the Countdown to 2030 initiative conducted a capacity-strengthening workshop on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) knowledge translation in Mogadishu, Somalia. The training workshop aimed at strengthening the in-country team’s capacity to communicate research findings for policy and advocacy purposes. It included...

The Countdown Early Child Development profiles, which track 40 indicators across 197 countries, have been updated with the latest available data. For the first time this year, African regional profiles have also been published. The African regional profiles were developed in response to a demand from African countries and in...

On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, the Kenya Countdown country collaboration team and partners launched three landmark documents. These include the Quality of Care and Human Resources for Health Assessment (QoCHFA) Report, the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) Report, and the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition...

On October 24, 2025, The Uganda Countdown Country collaboration team shared key findings from the analysis of Uganda’s Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) indicators for the 2020–2024 period at the National Safe Motherhood Conference 2025. The RMNCAH analysis, part of the Countdown to 2030 initiative, assessed routine...

From October 20-25, 2025, the Countdown 2030 initiative technical team is holding a workshop to review progress, improve participants’ R programming skills, and advance development of the CD2030 R-Shiny Application. Specific objectives include strengthening team capacity in immunization code usage, enhancing expertise in relevant R packages, and refining Shiny application...

On October 13, 2025, the Countdown Rwanda Country collaboration team shared the findings and the outcomes of the 2025 country annual meeting with key stakeholders from the Ministry of Health, Republic of Rwanda and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre. The dissemination focused on the integration of survey and health facility data...

On September 23–24, the Countdown Zimbabwe country collaboration team shared the 2025 Country Annual Meeting results at Zimbabwe’s National Reproductive Health Technical Working Group, the country’s highest platform for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N) dialogue. The results emphasized the integration of survey and health facility...

On August 28, 2025, Côte d’Ivoire’s National Institute of Public Health (INSP) convened a national workshop in Abidjan to share recent findings on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N), along with vaccination trends for the period 2019–2024. At the workshop, Côte d’Ivoire’s country collaboration, led by...

The Countdown vaccination results were presented on Tuesday, 23 September, during the coordination meeting of the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon, chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry. The presentation provided an evidence based overview of vaccination performance across health districts and served as a basis for strategic...

As part of the implementation of the Health and Social Development Plan (PDSS 2022–2026), the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene (MS/HP), in collaboration with partners, organizes two sessions of the National Technical Health Committee (CTNS) each year: one mid-year and one annual meeting at the national level. The main...

Dr. Cheikh Mbacké Faye, Regional Director of APHRC West Africa and Director of the Countdown to 2030 initiative, has published a new commentary in The Lancet Global Health. The commentary responds to a new modelling study that examined the far-reaching effects of abrupt reductions in US foreign assistance on HIV,...

At the 2025 Annual Meeting, one of the highlights was the demonstration of a new R Shiny application developed by the Countdown partnership and APHRC. This tool represents a major step forward in making routine health data analysis more accessible, user-friendly, and impactful for countries. This video describes the advantages...

Global health is facing a funding cliff. Major donors announced sharp reductions in official development assistance (ODA) for 2025-27; if these trends persist, ODA for health in 2027 could fall below 2020 levels. In parallel, domestic health spending is flat or falling in many LMICs, and out-of-pocket (OOP) payments remain...

  After weeks of remote meetings and an in-person workshop in Kenya in June, country teams have finalized their analyses. The reports include 42 indicators related to childhood immunization, health services utilization, antenatal and delivery care, birth outcomes, and mortality. Below are links to the individual country reports. English reports:...

In a major step toward improving health outcomes through data-driven decision-making, the Countdown Zimbabwe country collaboration team held a five-day Operational and Implementation Research Data Analysis Workshop from September 1 to 5, 2025 in Harare. The workshop brought together researchers from across Zimbabwe with the goal of strengthening sub-national operational...

On August 19, the world came together to mark World Humanitarian Day—a time to honor humanitarian workers and reflect on the urgent needs of people living through crisis and conflict. This year’s theme, #ActForHumanity, strongly resonates with our work in maternal and newborn health. As highlighted in the 2025 Countdown to 2030...

The Countdown to 2030 dissemination workshop, held on July 31, 2025 at AH Hotel in Accra, convened stakeholders from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ministry of Health (MOH), University of Ghana School of Public Health (UG-SPH), University of Southampton, the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), and the Global...

From July 21 to August 8, 2025, 15 research fellows from 14 African countries are attending an intensive residential training in Dakar, Senegal, as part of the Countdown to 2030 Fellowship Program. Over the next three weeks, fellows will: Refine their RMNCAH+N research questions with expert mentors Enhance their skills...

In July 2025, the Countdown to 2030 Madagascar team participated in the national RMNCAH+N coordination meeting held at the Carlton Hotel in Antananarivo. The meeting, chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health, brought together a broad range of stakeholders involved in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and...

As the second cohort of Countdown fellows completed their one-year training and mentorship, they reflected on how the program had expanded their horizons and advanced their countries’ work toward improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. The fellows participated in a final round of training from June 9 to13,...

This blog post summarizes Dr. Sophia Kagoye’s presentation about evaluating outpatient and inpatient service utilization data and evaluating health system performance using routine health facility data. Given during the 2025 annual meeting, the presentation offered practical tools for interpreting trends and identifying gaps in curative services for children under five, with...

This blog post summarizes a presentation that Cauane Blumenberg from the International Center for Equity in Health (ICEH) gave at Countdown’s 2025 annual meeting in Nairobi. The private sector plays a significant yet often underrepresented role in the provision of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) services. Its contribution...

This blog post summarizes Roland Mady’s presentation during the 2025 annual meeting, which presented new tools and methods for assessing institutional maternal mortality, stillbirth, and neonatal mortality before discharge.  Mr. Mady is a research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In many countries, increasing levels of...

270 researchers, analysts and policy experts from 34 African countries are convening in Nairobi this week to produce data that is more accessible, accurate and actionable, an essential step to helping low- and middle-income countries progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Calling the Countdown annual meeting “a vital tradition,” Abdihamid...

Countdown to 2030 for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health initiative is holding its Cohort 2 Fellowship Program analytical training from June 9 to 13.  The training is aimed at strengthening the fellows’ ability to communicate research findings for policy and advocacy purposes; equipping the fellows with knowledge translation, policy engagement,...

Fifteen promising early-career researchers from across Africa have been selected for the 2025 cohort of the Countdown to 2030 (CD2030) Fellowship Program. Over the coming year, the fellows will engage in collaborative training, mentorship, and research to advance work on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N)...

In preparation for the upcoming Country Annual Meeting (CAM 2025), Countdown to 2030 initiative held the first virtual workshop on District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) data extraction and initial quality assessment on May 16 and 27. The workshop guided participants on using the Countdown DHIS2 data extractor, ensuring all...

On April 28, 2025, the Countdown Tanzania country collaboration team held an Immunisation dissemination meeting at Edema Hotel, Morogoro. Present in the workshop were key stakeholders from the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), PATH International, JSI International, Afya Intelligence, CHAI International, President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local...

Dr. Cheikh M. Faye, Director of the Countdown to 2030 and of the APHRC West Africa Regional Office, represented the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) at the 2025 WAHO Partners Forum (7–8 May) and the 26th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Health Ministers of ECOWAS (9–10 May)...

Lancet Commission: Action needed to address rising threats to young people’s health and wellbeing Greater investments in the health and wellbeing of adolescents (people aged 10 to 24) would yield a “triple dividend” of benefits by improving young people’s lives today, improving their health as adults, and positively impacting their...

This post reprints an article originally published in Kenya’s The Standard.  Read the original article here.  To reverse the slowdown in progress on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH&N) during the first half of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, urgent and focused efforts are needed across five...

The Annual Analytical Workshop on Immunization Coverage and Inequalities has officially started and is currently being held in Dakar, Senegal, from April 28 to May 2, 2025. The week-long event brings together researchers from 26 African countries participating in the Countdown to 2030 initiative, alongside technical experts from leading partner...

Abidjan, March 25, 2025 — As part of its continued commitment to improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N), Côte d’Ivoire held a national dissemination workshop to share findings from a comprehensive health financing study. The workshop was organized with support from the Global Financing Facility...

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...

As part of the second year of Phase 3 implementation, the Burkina Faso Countdown 2030 Country Collaboration conducted a series of in depth analyses on reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, as well as on immunization, a priority thematic pillar of this phase. These analyses culminated in the production...

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,...

From October 16 to 18, 2024, Guinea hosted the second quarterly coordination meeting of the Multisectoral Technical Committee (CTM) for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N). The event was held in Conakry with the participation of 97 stakeholders out of 112 expected, including sectoral ministries, civil...

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...