On December 13 and 14, the Bellagio Child Survival Study Group, The Lancet and ten other partners hosted the first in a series of bi-annual global conferences on child survival, titled "Tracking Progress in Child Survival - Countdown to 2015." The conference, held in London, drew 320 Ministers of Health, donors, academics, NGO representatives and other child health experts. Among other recommendations, participants agreed that child survival programs should increase their focus on continuum of care (home-community-facility-referral) and community and household approaches to maternal and child health.
The conference accepted poster abstracts from the following CORE members: American Red Cross, Concern Worldwide, Helen Keller International, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and World Relief. In addition, the CSTS+ project (ORC Macro) had an abstract accepted on "Lives Saved" by USAID Child Survival and Health Grants Program PVO grantees. Posters are available on the conference web site.
Countdown to 2015 web site
CORE Online Learning Session: Including Grandmothers in Community Health and Nutrition Programs
On January 11, 2006, CORE will offer an online learning session titled "The grandmother-inclusive methodology: Increasing the cultural relevance and the effectiveness of community health and nutrition programs." Session presenter Judi Aubel, PhD, MPH, Technical Director, The Grandmother Project, will discuss how the methodology was applied in a 2002-2003 neonatal health project implemented in Mali by Helen Keller International, with assistance from The Grandmother Project. The session will be held on Wednesday, January 11 from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm US Eastern time. To sign up or to read a more detailed description, please click on the link below. The session is free and open to CORE members and partners.
Register for session
The Grandmother Project
CORE Group Co-Sponsors Global Health Media Training
On November 14, the CORE Group, along with U.S. Coalition for Child Survival, Global Health Council and the Academy for Educational Development, co-sponsored a one-day media training titled "Communicating the Global Health Message." Facilitated by Washington, DC-based public affairs firm GMMB, the workshop provided more than 60 global health professionals with tools and tactics for developing messages and reaching key media. The full set of workshop materials has been posted on the CORE web site, including survey research on maternal, newborn and child health messaging, and sample press releases, op-eds and letters to the editor.
Media training materials
CORE Qualitative Methods Workshop Held in Kenya
In early December, the CORE Group's Social and Behavior Change Working Group and Monitoring and Evaluation working group, together with CSTS+ and CORE member AMREF, held a one-week Qualitative Research Methods Training in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop provided PVO/NGO field staff an opportunity to learn qualitative research techniques, through a combination of classroom training, practical field exercises, and critique of fieldwork. Twenty-seven participants, representing 8 African countries, completed the training. For more information, contact workshop co-facilitator Eric Swedberg/Save the Children at e-mail: eswedber@savechildren.org
"Where CORE Group Members Work" Country Directory Posted
Based on an analysis of CORE Group member organization annual reports for 2004, CORE has compiled a country-by-country directory of where its members work – more than 168 countries in total.
CORE country directory
New PMNCH Director Named
Dr. Francisco Songane was named the Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the "Tracking Progress in Child Survival - Countdown to 2015" conference in London. Dr. Songane's public health career has involved extensive work at
sub-national, national and international levels. Trained in Mozambique, the United States and England, he served as district medical director as well as the director of Mozambique's second-largest hospital. From 2000-2004, he served as the Minister of Health of Mozambique. For more information, see PMNCH web site.
PMNCH web site
RBM Partnership Forum Issues Call to Action
On November 18-19, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Forum V convened in Yaounde, Cameroon, to identify priorities for implementing the RBM Partnership Global Strategic Plan 2005-2015, and assess partnership progress to date. Forum recommendations are outlined in the "Yaounde Call to Action," which emphasizes national scaling up efforts in malaria control.
Yaounde Call to Action
Featured Resources:
Household-to-Hospital Continuum of Maternal and Newborn Care:
The household-to-hospital continuum of care is a comprehensive approach that promotes evidenced-based practices and addresses the enabling environment factors that affect care-seeking behaviors in the community. The approach encourages communities and health care providers to work together to provide appropriate and timely care for women and newborns. This policy brief, produced by the ACCESS Program, explains how the continuum is developed and why it is important, and how to establish national and global support for the model.
Policy Brief
A Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Health Programs:
This guide provides a comprehensive listing of the most widely used indicators for monitoring and evaluating child health programs in developing countries. The indicators are organized using a generic conceptual framework, which maps the pathways through which programs achieve results. The guide was produced by the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Health Organization, UNICEF, Measure Evaluation and the World Bank, and is intended for child health program managers, applied researchers and monitoring and evaluation specialists.
Guide
Share your materials with NGOs around the world: CORE's Child Health and Development Database houses more than 400 NGO tools, documents and materials in child health and development. Materials submission instructions are available in English, French and Spanish. Please visit www.coregroup.org/database/
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