Photo credit: NEST360
This month, we are proud to spotlight the Council of International Neonatal Nurses (COINN), a member of the PMNCH Healthcare Professional Associations (HCPA) constituency, and the Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360), a member of the PMNCH Academic, Research and Training Institutes (ART) constituency. Their partnership, recently formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, further strengthens their shared purpose of improving small and sick newborn care, with a focus on neonatal nursing care, across sub-Saharan Africa. It’s an excellent example of a cross-constituency partnership that makes a critical impact at the country level.
COINN, with over 4000 individual members and 16 national organizations, is the only international coalition focused solely on neonatal nurses and their work. They aim to unify neonatal nurses globally and (1) promote excellence in neonatal nursing (2) improve health outcomes for the infants and families nurses serve and (3) act as an international leader in development of professional standards for neonatal nursing.
NEST360 is s an international alliance of 22 organizations, of which 17 are in Africa, united to end preventable neonatal deaths in African hospitals. NEST360 collaborates with governments to strengthen health systems sustainably and at scale through (1) innovation with devices and health systems change (2) enabling education ecosystems and (3) implementing evidence-based care, based on reliable, locally-owned data. With NEST360, UNICEF and hundreds of implementers around the world, the Newborn Toolkit has more than 1000 tools in 11 languages, and regular webinars to democratise change and go faster together.
64 countries are at risk of missing their national target for reducing neonatal mortality,(UNICEF) and children continue to face different chances of survival based on where they are born. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern and Central Asia bear the heaviest burden at 79% of the 2.3 million total neonatal deaths per year. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest neonatal mortality rate in 2022 at 27 deaths per 1000 live births, followed by central and southern Asia with 21 deaths per 1000 live births. In sub-Saharan Africa, the risk of death in the first month of life is 11 times higher than that in the lowest-mortality region, Australia and New Zealand. WHO
WHO estimates project a shortfall of 1.3 million dedicated sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) workers by 2030, including midwives, nurses, neonatal nurses and community health workers. Investment in the health workforce is crucial to improve neonatal outcomes, averting roughly two-thirds (67%) of maternal deaths, 64% of newborn deaths and 65% of stillbirths. WEF.
The global SRMNAH workforce requires adequate support and training, as it currently meets only about 75% of the need for essential SRMNAH care worldwide, with this capacity dropping to just 41% in low-income countries. UNFPA Over the next decade, 1 in 6 of the world’s nurses is expected to retire, necessitating the education and employment of 4.7 million new nurses to replace them. COINN When adequately trained and supported, neonatal nurses can meet a significant portion of the demand for newborn care. Protecting and prioritizing neonatal nursing calls for strengthened leadership, continuous education and training, improved accountability and governance, and a targeted focus on areas with the greatest need. COINN continues to be a valuable PMNCH partner and collaborator on events and advocacy products to support the health and wellbeing of women and children.
This new partnership brings two health partnerships with distinct and important core competencies together with their common purpose to accelerate survival for every newborn: COINN’s focus on standards of excellence in healthcare combined with NEST360’s expertise in health systems innovation, investment and use of data for change in five African countries. Since such a high percentage of neonatal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and evidence has demonstrated the importance of more nurses and specialist skills in improving the chances of newborn survival, this partnership has scope to accelerate progress towards SDG 3.2 and the vision of Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere.
The partnership contributes to the implementation of the 77th World Health Assembly resolution (WHA77) on accelerating progress on maternal, newborn and child mortality. The resolution specifies that focused, urgent and coordinated country-level action, including sufficient numbers of skilled health professionals, is needed for maternal, newborn and child survival to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Led by Government of Somalia and cosponsored by 51 Members States including many in sub-Saharan Africa, the resolution calls for Member States to accelerate action to tackle the leading causes of maternal and child deaths, improve access to comprehensive health services through stronger primary health care (PHC), and invest in small and sick newborn units. Two key asks in the resolution are the development of comprehensive support systems to advance quality services in LMICs with a strong focus on humanitarian and fragile settings, and the scaling up of specialized training for health care professionals to ensure quality care for small and sick newborns. Human resources for health has been underlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) Roadmap on Human Resource Strategies to Ensure all Newborns Survive and Thrive.
Special thanks to Karen Walker, President (Australia) at COINN for her strong leadership as the PMNCH Knowledge and Evidence Working Group Vice Chair and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and Stillbirths Expert Workstream Lead, and for her many contributions in the HCPA constituency. We would also like to acknowledge Edith Gicheha based in Kenya, Clinical Training Director at NEST360 for her steadfast dedication to the mission of newborn care.
To learn more about COINN and NEST360, follow them in social media:
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