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...
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...
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 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...
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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:...
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...
Chers collègues et partenaires de la communauté Countdown, En tant que Directeur de l’initiative Countdown to 2030, j’ai le plaisir de partager avec vous des informations clés concernant la prochaine Conférence Internationale sur la Santé Maternelle et Néonatale (IMNHC 2026), qui se tiendra en mars 2026 à Nairobi, au Kenya....
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,...
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,...
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...
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...
Introduction Financing is a key determinant of whether women, children, and adolescents receive essential healthcare without financial hardship, aligning with the goal of universal health coverage (UHC). While global analyses of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) financing exist, there is a critical need for country-level assessments to help...
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...
One more thing to celebrate this year is that the Countdown team seems to have welcomed more newborn babies than usual. We have counted at least four, with Assane from APHRC and Shelley and Brittany from Johns Hopkins University plus one more person welcoming new children. We are trying...
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 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...
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....
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CAM 2023 – Ethiopia Analysis Results CAM 2023 – Ethiopia Communications
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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...
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...
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,...
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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...
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...
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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)...
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...
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...
Women’s and Children’s Health in Conflict Settings, a series published in The Lancet in January 2021, aims to improve understanding of and address the special requirements of providing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition services in conflict settings. Led by academic co-investigators and partners affiliated with...
New Report Tracks Global Progress Towards Universal Coverage for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition Countdown to 2030 highlights major challenges to reaching SDG targets, including universal coverage of essential health services to women, children and adolescents CAPE TOWN – Today, leading experts in global women’s, children’s...
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