Opening Forum
The 2021 Opening Forum of the AlignMNH Collective marked an important moment for the maternal and newborn health communities to set the stage for the road ahead as we work toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-era targets for maternal and newborn health and prevention of stillbirths. During this two-day virtual convening, more than 1,000 stakeholders from 110 countries came together as one global MNH community. Collaboration and knowledge sharing will be key as we address challenges, promote solutions, and chart progress; maintaining health system resiliency in the face of current and future pandemics, like COVID-19; improve quality of care for women and newborns; invest in the healthcare workforce; and ensure respect and equitable care.
Key Takeaways
Read our highlights report from the Opening Forum across MNH evidence, quality of care, and alignment of MNH priorities at the global and country levels.
Day One Sessions and Highlights
Welcome Remarks and Keynote Presentation
Panelists included:
- Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director, World Health Organization
- Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, SRHR Expert and Distinguished Lecturer
- Dr. Queen Dube (Keynote Speaker), Newborn Health Program Lead, World Health Organization
Plenary | Road to 2030: New Challenges and New Opportunities to Accelerate Progress for Maternal and Newborn Health
Panelists included:
- Zoë Mullan (Moderator), Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Global Health
- Dr. Ties Boerma, Professor, University of Manitoba
- Dr. Franka Cadée, President, International Confederation of Midwives
- Hon. Minister Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, Minister of Health, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
Session resources:
- Countdown 2030 – Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Data
- Potential impact of midwives in preventing and reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and stillbirths: a Lives Saved Tool modelling study
- High-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: A time for a revolution
Plenary | Divergent Roads to Progress—A Country by Country Examination of the Challenges Overcome and the Factors That Led to Success
Panelists included:
- Mary Kinney (Moderator), Health Policy and Systems Researcher and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Western Cape’s School of Public Health
- Dr. Shams El Arifeen, Senior Director and Senior Scientist Maternal and Child Health Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
- Dr. Sartie Kenneh, Acting Chief Officer for Public Health, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone
- Dr. Sudha Sharma, Co-Director, Ciwec Hospital and Travel Medicine Center
- Dr. Karin Slowing, Independent Consultant, PAHO Guatemala
Session resources:
Concurrent Technical Session | Antenatal Corticosteroids for Improving Preterm Newborn Survival in Low-Resource Countries
Panelists included:
- Dr. Femi Oladapo (Moderator), Head of the Maternal and Perinatal Unit, World Health Organization
- Dr. Shabina Ariff, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics & Child Health, The Aga Khan University
- Dr. Zahida Qureshi, Associate Professor, University of Nairobi
- Dr. Adejumoke Idowu Ayede, Paediatrician/Neonatologist, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and University College Hospital Ibadan
- Dr. Shivaprasad Goudar, Professor of Physiology & Director of Research, J N Medical College, KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research
Session resources:
- ACTION-1 trial
- Cochrane review update 2020
- WHO 2015 Recommendation on Interventions to Improve Preterm Birth Outcomes
- Antenatal Corticosteroids Trial (ACT)
Concurrent Technical Session | National Forums on Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
Panelists included:
- Dr. Blerta Maliqi (Moderator), Policies, Strategies, and Programmes Team Lead, World Health Organization
- Dr. Tedbabe Degefie Hailegebriel, Senior Advisor Maternal and Newborn Health, UNICEF
- Dr. Salma Anas, Director/Head, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria
- Dr. Isabella Sagoe-Moses, Deputy Director, Reproductive and Child Health, Ghana Health Service
- Dr. Nuhu Yaqub, Jr., Family Health Division, World Health Organization
- Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director, World Health Organization
- Mr. Martin Dohlsten, Technical Officer MNCH, World Health Organization
Concurrent Technical Session | Improving Experience of Care and Reducing Mistreatment of Women during Childbirth and of Newborns
Panelists included:
- Dr. Özge Tunçalp (Moderator), Scientist, World Health Organization
- Dr. Patience Afulani (Moderator), Assistant Professor, UCSF
- Dr. Theresa Irinyenikan, Senior Lecturer/Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo State, Nigeria
- Dr. Saraswathi Vedam, Principal and Professor, Birth Place Lab, University of British Columbia
- Dr. Kwame Adu-Bonsaffo, Senior Lecturer/Consultant Obstretician-Gynecologist, University of Ghana Medical School/Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital
- Dr. Emma Sacks, Associate Faculty, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
- Dr. Meghan Bohren, Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
Session resources:
- Newborn Care and the Respectful Maternity Care Agenda: Preliminary Evidence from a WHO Multi-Country Study
- Exploring Mistreatment of Women and Quality of Care Using WHO Multi-Country Survey
- Centering Lived Experience & Expertise: Health Equity and Measurement
- How Women are Treated During Childbirth: Evidence from WHO Multi-Country Study
- Birth Place Lab
- White Ribbon Alliance Respectful Maternity Care Resources
- WHO Statement: Prevention and Elimination of Disrespect and Abuse During Childbirth
- WHO Recommendations: Intrapartum Care for a Positive Care Experience
- WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience
- WHO Report: Midwives Voices, Midwives Realities
Day Two Sessions and Highlights
Plenary | Resiliency in the Face of the Pandemic: Government Responses to Maintaining and Adapting MNH Services during COVID-19—Insights to Mitigate Future Disruptions
Panelists included:
- Dr. Mickey Chopra (Moderator), Global Solutions Lead for Service Delivery, World Bank Group
- Dr. Hadiza Galadanci, Africa Center for Excellence for Population Health and Policy, Bayero University, Nigero
- Dr. Gagan Gupta, Maternal and Newborn Health Specialist, UNICEF
- Ms. Pauline Irungu, Advocacy and Policy Country Lead, PATH
- Prof. Priya Soma-Pillay, Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Steve Biko Academic Hospital and University of Pretoria, UP Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Health Care
Session resources:
- COVID-19 Effect on MNCH Services in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and South Africa, PATH COVID-19 Policy Tracker
- COVID-19 Effect on MRH Services and Maternal Deaths in South Africa
- The Effect of COVID-19 on Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Services in Bangladesh
Nigeria and South Africa: Call for a Contextualised Pandemic Response in LMIC - PATH: COVID-19 Essential Health Services Policy Tracker Interim Findings
Concurrent Technical Session | Stillbirths: Data and Parent Voices to End Preventable Deaths
Panelists included:
- Dr. Hannah Blencowe (Moderator), Associate Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Ms. Danzhen You, Senior Advisor, UNICEF
- Mrs. Lucia Hug, Statistics Specialist, UNICEF
- Ms. Susannah Hopkins-Leisher, Board Chair, PhD Student, International Stillbirth Alliance
- Anuradha Talwar, Junior Auditor, PGIMER, Chandigarh
- Ms. Wanjiru Kihusa, Founder & CEO, Still a Mum
- Prof. Rakhi Dandona, Professor, Public Health Foundation of India
- Ijeoma TDaniels, Founder, Writers Edge Consult
Session resources:
- A Neglected Tragedy: The Global Burden of Stillbirths
- International Stillbirth Alliance
- Still A Mum
- Every Newborn Action Plan
- QoC Network
Concurrent Technical Session | Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response Implementation at Country Level
Panelists included:
- Dr. Willibald Zeck (Moderator), Global Maternal and Newborn Health Thematic Fund Coordinator
United Nations Population Fund - Ms. Mary Kinney, Researcher and Doctoral Candidate, SOPH, School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Dr. Animesh Biswas, Technical Officer, United Nations Population Fund
Session resources:
- MPDSR Scoping Review
- Bangladesh Community Level MPDSR
- WHO Maternal Death Surveillance and Response Technical Guidance
- WHO application of ICD-10 to deaths during the perinatal period: ICD-PM
- WHO application of ICD 10 to deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium: ICD-MM
- WHO- Time to respond: a report on the global implementation of MDSR, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, UNDP
- Trends in Maternal Mortality: 2000-2017
- UNICEF Stillbirth estimates. October 2020
- WHO – Newborns improving survival and well-being, September 2020 fact sheet
- Implementation of maternal and perinatal death reviews: a scoping review protocol
- MPDSR in LMICs: a scoping review of implementation factors
Concurrent Technical Session | Establishing Inpatient Care: Lessons Learned to Inform Quality of Care for Small and Sick Newborns
Panelists included:
- Dr. Cyril Engmann (Moderator), Senior Director/Attending Neonatologist/Professor of Pediatrics & Public Health, University of Washington/PATH
- Dr. Patricia Coffey (Moderator), Director, PATH
- Dr. Kiersten Israel-Ballard, Maternal, Newborn Child Health & Nutrition Team Lead, PATH
- Dr. David Gathara, NEST360 Health Systems Lead, LSTHM
- Dr. Bogale Worku, Executive Director, Ethiopian Pediatrics Society
- Dr. Sushma Nangia, Director, Professor, and Head, Neonatology, Lady Hardinge Medical College & Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital
- Dr. Queen Dube, Newborn Health Program Lead, World Health Organization
- Dr. Assumpta Kayinamura Mwali, Senior RMNCH Specialist, Intrahealth International
- Ms. Kimberly Mansen, Senior Nutrition Officer, PATH
Session resources:
- Nest360 Implementation Toolkit for Small and Sick Newborn Care
neoLens Project - State of the Evidence and the Implementation Gap for Small and Sick Newborns (NEST360)
- Ending Preventable Newborn Deaths and Stillbirths
- Survive and Thrive: Transforming Care for Every Small and Sick Newborn
- Saving Newborn Lives: Program Brief
Closing Plenary and Closing Remarks | The Road Ahead: Collective Action to Accelerate Progress—Improving MNH Outcomes while Providing People-Centered Care
Panelists included:
- Dr. David Ntirushwa (Moderator), Obstetricians and Gynecology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kigali, Rwanda
- Dr. Allisyn Moran, Maternal Health Unit Head, World Health Organization
- Ms. Angela Nguku, Executive Director, White Ribbon Alliance Kenya
- Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Deputy Director, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Ms. Anita Gibson, Director, AlignMNH Secretariat
- Dr. Aparajita Gogoi, Executive Director, Centre for Catalyzing Change
Session resources:
- Aligning Global Efforts on MNH: WHO on behalf of ENAP and EPMM
- Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality targets and strategies
- Every Newborn Action Plan
Networking Sessions
To view all day one and day two networking sessions, please click here.