Clock is Ticking: Country-led Evidence for Scaling Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Interventions in Conflict-Affected and Humanitarian Settings

Global progress in maternal, newborn, and child survival has stalled, despite significant progress achieved between 2000 and 2015. The world is currently off-track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets for reducing maternal mortality (SDG 3.1) and eliminating preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age (SDG 3.2). According to the WHO's 2023 progress report, approximately 50% of global maternal, stillbirth, newborn, and child fatalities occur within fragile and humanitarian settings across Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The combined effects of conflicts, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverse gains in maternal, newborn, and child health. Nevertheless, many of these deaths are preventable and treatable. A significant knowledge gap exists regarding implementable and scalable interventions that are innovative and can accelerate progress in maternal and child health in low-resourced settings.As the countdown to 2030 begins, there is an urgent need to accelerate progress in maternal, newborn, and child health. Despite a growing body of evidence on interventions that are effective in reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality, there is little knowledge of how countries with weak and fragile health systems are implementing these interventions at scale with measurable progress. The special collection will provide actionable evidence of country-led examples of targeted interventions that have reduced inequities, advanced universal care, and addressed disparities while improving service coverage using innovative and scalable solutions. The collection of these articles could guide humanitarian and conflict-affected countries, and other low-resourced countries, to adapt, implement, and rapidly scale up these solutions as the world watchfully monitors progress in maternal and child health for the 2030 SDGs. This collection could be a useful resource for the global scientific community to close the data gap between evidence and practice, focusing on what has worked in LMICs in reducing the high burden of maternal, newborn, and child deaths and how locally driven policy responses and innovation have influenced and shaped implementation.This Research Topic prioritizes evidence from country-led programs and implementation experience in MNCH care (including evaluation of coverage, quality, equity, and survival outcomes) and does not focus on stand-alone methodological or modeling studies unless they are embedded in real-world service delivery and scale-up. Themes1. Integrated PHC MNCH delivery models improving coverage/quality/equity with scale/implementation outcomes.2.Equity-focused strategies for underserved groups (rural, urban poor, migrants/displaced): delivery + results + enabling policy conditions.3. MNCH in fragile/conflict/humanitarian settings: continuity, referral, adaptation and governance/coordination.4. Frontline MNCH (CHWs, midwives, task-sharing): regulatory frameworks, supervision systems, performance and quality measurement.5. Governance and sustainable domestic financing for improved MNCH delivery (implementation lessons and outcomes).6. MNCH services linked to social protection / financial protection mechanisms: implementation experience and results.7. Digital tools as implementation enablers (where evaluated in delivery): acceptability, adoption, and outcomes.8. Cross-country learning with transferability: what conditions are necessary for adaptation (capacity, financing, security context). Topic editors: Sk Md Mamunur Rahman Malik, Ziad A Memish Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78123/clock-is-ticking-country-led-evidence-for-scaling-maternal-newborn-and-child-health-interventions-in-conflict-affected-and-humanitarian-settings