The collaboration aims to strengthen the analysis and synthesis of health data to inform national and local reviews of progress and performance in the context of the national health plans and Global Financing Facility (GFF) investment case for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition. It will also contribute to the development a monitoring and evaluation plan for universal health care, which will be linked to the GFF-supported investment case and national roll-out of prioritized set of essential interventions.

Pakistan is engaged in developing its universal health coverage strategy, and the GFF investment case is an integral part of this process.

The Pakistan Ministry of Health has prioritized a set of essential health interventions across the multiple tiers of service delivery, with the aim is to make major progress towards universal health care. Many  of the prioritized interventions are in the field of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N). Currently Pakistan does not have a system of regular reviews of progress and performance towards a national action plan. The Ministry of Health produces annual reports which are discussed by the national and sub-national devolved segments of the Government and subsequently in the national parliament, but a comprehensive technical review of progress and performance has not yet been conducted. Through this Countdown collaboration, a mechanism of regular review will be established, including a mid-term review of national-level health indicators feeding directly into the Annual Health Sector Report based on the National Health Vision (2016-2025) . This annual report will be presented at the Inter-Ministerial Health and Population Council and then to the Parliament by the Minister of Health.

The Health Sciences Academy organizes an annual public health conference which attract staff and experts from provinces, academia, government, development partners and various other key stakeholders. The project will aim to produce an analytical report for progress reviews, starting in 2020, and continuing across 2021. This is considered a five-year program, eventually leading to a mature and embedded system for analysis of progress and performance assessment linked to the conduct of national level inclusive transparent reviews of the UHC including RMNCAH+N within a devolved health related governance system. The current Countdown collaboration is currently mandated to contribute to the initial two years. In this milieu, the GFF investment case provides a major opportunity to build a strong system.

The Countdown analyses will focus on the indicators in the GFF investment case, the National Health Action Plan (NAP) 2019-2023; 31 of 44 indicators pertain to RMNCAH+N. In addition, the analyses will take into account the DCP-3 based strategy for UHC and the investment case which should be developed during 2020.

The Pakistan Countdown country collaboration is producing:

• Annual analytical reports using all available data and focusing on core indicators of progress and performance to present at the annual public health conference 2020 and beyond,
• Monitoring and evaluation plans and frameworks for the new health plans, linked to the GFF investment case for RMNCAH+N,
• In-depth analyses on specifics RMNCAH+N topics: including progress toward universal health coverage, province-level analysis of health indicators, and other topics.

Summary of the work so far is summarized in this data uptake series brief.