EQUAL’s Strategy for Impact
As a new research consortium, our goal clear yet ambitious – to reduce maternal and newborn deaths in countries affected by conflict.
The realities of achieving that goal are complicated and unfortunately unlikely in the near future.
In 2010, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health set ambitious targets to reduce neonatal mortality rates (NMR) to under 12 per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to under 70 per 100,000 live births by the year 2030 in every country. Unfortunately, achieving these targets is unlikely. In 2020 alone, 2.4 million neonatal deaths occurred – representing half of all under-five deaths. An additional two million stillbirths and 295,000 maternal deaths occur each year.
Maternal and newborn mortality rates remain significantly higher in areas affected by conflict. These rates—and those for stillbirth and maternal mortality – are likely to rise with some estimates anticipating two-thirds of the world’s poor population will live in fragile states by 2030.
Recognizing this, there is an urgent need to invest in research and innovation to expand access to life-saving services with a focus on the most marginalized, hard-to-reach populations, most especially those living in conflict-affected contexts. Reaching the global targets to end preventable deaths, to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), and to end extreme poverty are contingent upon this concerted action.
Over the next five years, EQUAL aims to help address this by generating evidence to improve the provision of high-quality intrapartum and immediate postpartum care in the most challenging settings with a focus on South Sudan, Somalia, eastern DRC, and Northeast Nigeria.
As we begin implementing our research studies, we remain committed to ensuring quality health services are accessible to every woman and newborn, regardless of where they live. Our work will be guided by a comprehensive strategy and framework you are invited to explore further.
Explore EQUAL’s strategy for impact including the research framework and methodologies, approach to gender mainstreaming, research uptake, and capacity sharing.