Cited by 517Global Maternal and Child HealthChild Nutrition and Water AccessMaternal and Neonatal Healthcare

Countdown to 2030: tracking progress towards universal coverage for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health

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Boerma, Ties, Requejo, Jennifer, Victora, Cesar G, Amouzou, Agbessi, George, Asha, Agyepong, Irene, Barroso, Carmen, Barros, Aluisio J D +68 more·2018·The Lancet

Abstract

Building upon the successes of Countdown to 2015, Countdown to 2030 aims to support the monitoring and measurement of women's, children's, and adolescents' health in the 81 countries that account for 95% of maternal and 90% of all child deaths worldwide. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the rate of decline in prevalence of maternal and child mortality, stillbirths, and stunting among children younger than 5 years of age needs to accelerate considerably compared with progress since 2000. Such accelerations are only possible with a rapid scale-up of effective interventions to all population groups within countries (particularly in countries with the highest mortality and in those affected by conflict), supported by improvements in underlying socioeconomic conditions, including women's empowerment. Three main conclusions emerge from our analysis of intervention coverage, equity, and drivers of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in the 81 Countdown countries. First, even though strong progress was made in the coverage of many essential RMNCH interventions during the past decade, many countries are still a long way from universal coverage for most essential interventions. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence suggests that available services in many countries are of poor quality, limiting the potential effect on RMNCH outcomes. Second, within-country inequalities in intervention coverage are reducing in most countries (and are now almost non-existent in a few countries), but the pace is too slow. Third, health-sector (eg, weak country health systems) and non-health-sector drivers (eg, conflict settings) are major impediments to delivering high-quality services to all populations. Although more data for RMNCH interventions are available now, major data gaps still preclude the use of evidence to drive decision making and accountability. Countdown to 2030 is investing in improvements in measurement in several areas, such as quality of care and effective coverage, nutrition programmes, adolescent health, early childhood development, and evidence for conflict settings, and is prioritising its regional networks to enhance local analytic capacity and evidence for RMNCH.

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  • The coverage and overall progress towards achieving the SDG targets is very sluggish.

    “However, the coverage and the overall progress towards achieving the SDG targets is very sluggish [7].”

    From Using mobile phones to improve community health workers performance in low-and-middle-income countries (2020) · cites this paper as [7]

    The Abstract and “Maternal, neonatal, and child survival” section say that countries remain far from universal coverage and that progress must accelerate considerably to meet SDG targets. But “Progress towards universal coverage: still much to do” also reports strong gains in coverage of many interventions; it describes the pace of reducing within-country inequalities, rather than coverage overall, as too slow. Calling coverage and overall progress uniformly “very sluggish” overstates the source. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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  1. [25]25. Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, et al. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in lowincome and middleincome countries. Lancet 2013; 382: 427-51.

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Authors
Boerma, T., Requejo, J., Victora, C. G., Amouzou, A., George, A., Agyepong, I., Barroso, C., Barros, A. J. D., Bhutta, Z. A., Black, R. E., Borghi, J., Buse, K., Aguirre, L. C., Chopra, M., Chou, D., Chu, Y., Claeson, M., Daelmans, B., Davis, A., DeJong, J., Diaz, T., El Arifeen, S., Ewerling, F., Fox, M., Gillespie, S., Grove, J., Guenther, T., Haakenstad, A., Hosseinpoor, A. R., Hounton, S., Huicho, L., Jacobs, T., Jiwani, S., Keita, Y., Khosla, R., Kruk, M. E., Kuo, T., Kyobutungi, C., Langer, A., Lawn, J. E., Leslie, H., Liang, M., Maliqi, B., Manu, A., Masanja, H., Marchant, T., Menon, P., Moran, A. C., Mujica, O. J., Nambiar, D., Ohiri, K., Park, L. A., Patton, G. C., Peterson, S., Piwoz, E., Rasanathan, K., Raj, A., Ronsmans, C., Saad-Haddad, G., Sabin, M. L., Sanders, D., Sawyer, S. M., da Silva, I. C. M., Singh, N. S., Somers, K., Spiegel, P., Tappis, H., Temmerman, M., Vaz, L. M. E., Ved, R. R., Vidaletti, L. P., Waiswa, P., Wehrmeister, F. C., Weiss, W., You, D., & Zaidi, S.
Affiliations
University of Manitoba (CA)
Corresponding author
Boerma, Ties
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-04
Volume
391
Issue
10129
Pages
1538-1548
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
OpenAlex
W2785331872
Cited by
517
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 56 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 94 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 1
FWCI
10.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Lancet (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion)
  • IFPRI E-brary (International Food Policy Research Institute) (submittedVersion)
  • CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion)
  • International Food Policy Research Institute (International Food Policy Research Institute) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Wellcome Trust (101815/Z/13/Z)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science
  • National Research Foundation (82769)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Global Maternal and Child Health
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare
Keywords
reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, universal health coverage, maternal mortality, child mortality, stillbirth, child stunting, intervention coverage, health equity, health system capacity, armed conflict, women's empowerment, quality of care, nutrition programs, adolescent health, early childhood development, data gaps, Sustainable Development Goals
MeSH terms
Child Health, Maternal Health, Infant Health, Health Equity, Conservation of Natural Resources, Humans, Mortality, Nutritional Status, Global Health, Universal Health Insurance, Reproductive Health

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