During 2020-2022, Countdown worked in Nepal and six other countries to understand the drivers of the major declines in maternal and newborn mortality over the past decades, as part of the Global Health Exemplars studies of Gates Ventures. Results from this study are available in:

• Global Health Exemplars webpage
• Increased utilisation and quality: a focus on inequality and a learning health system approach—explaining Nepal’s success in reducing maternal and newborn mortality 2000–2020

Countdown’s exemplar study in Nepal was a partnership between the South Asian Institute for Policy Analysis and Leadership (SAIPAL), the Family Welfare Division in the Ministry of Health and Population, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. All the Countdown exemplar studies had a similar mixed methods design.