USAID’s MaMoni Maternal and Newborn Care Strengthening Project(MaMoni MNCSP): Priorities for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) to Improve the Status of Special Care Newborn Unit (SCANU) Services in BangladeshPosition Paper

The Special Care Newborn Unit (SCANU) is an evidence-based, effective, and crucial lifesaving intervention that can save thousands of sick newborns’ lives with specialized and sophisticated health care. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) of Bangladesh established 59 SCANUs in secondary and tertiary level public health facilities throughout the country. Among them, 48 SCANUs were established with support from different development agencies (UNICEF, USAID’s MaMoni Maternal and Newborn Care Strengthening Project (MNCSP) of Save the Children, etc.). These SCANUs provide services to more than 100,000 critically sick newborns annually. However, continuity of quality services is challenging, which results in a significantly high case fatality rate in some SCANUs. The MOHFW needs to act urgently on these critical issues to maintain SCANU services with optimum standards. This position paper highlights the challenges and proposed measures that can be considered and implemented by the MOHFW under the current and upcoming health sector plan for improving the current state of SCANUs across the country.