ENAP Report 2016

The Maternal Newborn Working Group (MNWG) of the INDEPTH Network, together with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), were awarded a grant from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). The research focuses on three objectives:
1. Improving household survey capture of stillbirths and neonatal deaths;

2. Improving household survey capture of birth weight (BW) and gestational age (GA);

3. Optimizing the data capture of pregnancyoutcomes in Health and Demographic Surveillance
Sites (HDSS).

This work will be done through five HDSS that are members of the INDEPTH Network MNWG and won grants to conduct this work around the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP). These are Bandim HDSS centre in Guinea-Bissau; Dabat HDSS in Ethiopia; Iganga-Mayuge HDSS in Uganda; Kintampo HDSS in Ghana; and Matlab HDSS in Bangladesh.

The 2016 ENAP metrics workshop took place in Kampala, from 15th – 17th June 2016. The aim was to work with these site teams to review the objectives of the ENAP work and refine a generic protocol and relevant tools. The group was able to successfully work through a wide range of topics. There were a number of presentations, with the first by Prof. Joy Lawn from LSHTM contextualizing the current newborn health situation globally, and the role of the INDEPTH Network MNWG in this work and the ENAP metrics work. Prof. Lawn explained that a global voice is needed for stillbirths and newborn deaths which have been neglected in the global development agenda. Mr. Joseph Akuze, the technical coordinator in the INDEPTH Network MNWG technical secretariat at Makerere University, then guided the participants through the draft generic protocol that had been written to guide the sites in the work that will be undertaken. He explained the study research questions, objectives and methods in detail. He elaborated that the current ENAP metrics study has been designed to collect HDSS data from the five INDEPTH sites, and specifically how the study will assess the two alternative survey modules to measure the pregnancy outcomes and stillbirths.