Newborn Health Resources: Trainings and tools for improving newborn health in humanitarian settings

In 2018, the Global Health Cluster lead by the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a capacity survey of Global Health Cluster partners to capture information on partners’ self-assessment of their technical, operational, and coordination capacities. The results showed that most international and national partners reported a lack of capacity and expertise to provide maternal and newborn health (MNH) services. Less than half reported an ability to provide Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEmONC) and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (CEmONC) at primary and secondary level respectively, and only 42% of the international partners and 50% of the national partners reported providing Essential Newborn Care (ENC). To accelerate newborn health services in humanitarian settings, recent global interagency efforts have led to the development of the 2018 Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG)-endorsed Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings: Field Guide (NBFG); the Newborn Care Supply Kits for Humanitarian Settings; and a Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings: 2020–2024.

In addition, these resource cards were developed to facilitate capacity building of humanitarian stakeholders. To build these cards, a consultant conducted a mapping of key maternal and newborn health trainings across the development and humanitarian sectors using a methodology that included a desk review of existing trainings, stakeholder interviews, and a short online survey delivered to Health Cluster Coordinators. The findings of the mapping exercise were presented and discussed at an experts meeting organized by Laerdal Global Health, Maternity Foundation, and Save the Children in Stavanger, Norway in 2019.

Overall, the mapping identified a great variety of existing training programs, mainly for clinical health care providers, on all aspects of newborn care and at all levels of care provision. Existing trainings for program managers were somewhat scarce, and access to available tools and guidelines could be improved.

hus, we have packaged these resource tools as a quick pocket reference to aid program managers and implementers in humanitarian and fragile settings with identifying and accessing the most relevant trainings, tools, implementation guidance, and clinical guidance.