Saving Newborn Lives

Addressing Knowledge Gaps in Newborn Health
From 2000 to 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) program contributed to improved policies and expanded programs that addressed the major causes of newborn mortality. SNL worked with​ governments and local partners to test and adapt promising technologies and approaches to deliver lifesaving care, mobilized commitment and resources, and established strategic partnerships to ensure effective newborn health programs operate at scale. Working alongside valued partners, SNL provided technical leadership, advocacy, and measurement support, maintaining the cycle of evidence generation, consensus building, policy formulation and guidance, and program implementation and learning. This work contributed to an understanding of what can be done affordably and sustainably to save newborn lives in low-resource, high mortality settings around the world. Learn more about the program on the Healthy Newborn Network.

Purpose
This collection includes documents produced through SNL, with a focus on the final two phases of the program: SNL 3 (2013-2018) and SNL 4 (2019-2020). SNL 3 supported Ministries of Health in selected countries in efforts to achieve equitable and high-effective coverage of high-impact newborn services and practices at national scale. SNL 4 worked to help institutionalize newborn health policies and programs in four countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Nepal. The project documents implementation and measurement learning, translating global evidence and guidelines to enable country programs to use state-of-the-art tools and approaches for effective implementation of newborn health interventions at scale. In addition to this collection, please see the Healthy Newborn Network Blog for further reflection.

Audience
This collection compiles programmatic information, implementation research evidence, and advocacy tools for implementers and project managers. It includes key global health institutional guidance, technical briefs, peer-reviewed articles, case studies, and other resources that can help improve newborn interventions in communities and in healthcare institutions. Resources include research-led and funded by SNL, and written by SNL staff; research led by partners, with contributions and partial funding from SNL and written with support by SNL staff; or developed in partnership, whereby SNL staff contributed to the research, analysis or writing.