USAID/BASICS Holds Successful Newborn Health Conference in Senegal
June 26, 2009 - Over 80 stakeholders from 20 countries met last week in Senegal to discuss how lessons learned in newborn health programming during the past two decades can be used to meet future challenges. The conference, entitled Improving Newborn Health: from Advocacy to Scale, was USAID/BASICS’ final international knowledge sharing event before the project culminates most of its country programs this coming September.
USAID/BASICS will soon publish a full conference report on www.basics.org
“While newborn health is closely linked with both maternal health and child health, it is less developed than the other two major health focuses,” explained USAID/BASICS Newborn Health Advisor, Dr. Indira Narayanan. “This workshop thus focused on the condition of newborns, and aimed to promote a strong newborn health module that can link well with other key strategies and programs,” she added.
Efforts to promote strong newborn health modules were supported during Improving Newborn Health: from Advocacy to Scale through a series of group work exercises that culminated with each country delegation defining a set of doable actions that will advance implementation of critical interventions, including the strategies that will ensure greatest impact. A summary of each delegation’s priorities will also be included with the conference report.