Advancing newborn health: The Saving Newborn Lives initiative

Abstract

Until recently, newborn health was virtually absent from the global health agenda. Now, assistance agencies, national governments and non-governmental organisations are increasingly addressing this previously neglected issue of close to four million newborns dying every year. The experience of the Saving Newborn Lives initiative documents some of the progress that has been made and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Since the start of the initiative in 2000, targeted research, focused on overcoming the key barriers to improved newborn survival, has demonstrated low-cost, community-based interventions and strategies that can significantly reduce newborn mortality. Building on what has been learned from this and other efforts to date, the challenge now is to reach the millions of newborns still at risk.

Keywords:

• newborn
• community-based care
• advocacy
• neonatal mortality
• state-of-the-art

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its support of Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives programme as well as the programme's country-based partners. We would also like to recognise the contributions of the many other agencies which also provide support to the newborn health initiative.