Accelerating Scale-Up of Kangaroo Mother Care—What’s Next for the KMC Acceleration Partnership?

Presentation at the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference, October 19, 2015

Background: In October 2013, a group of global KMC stakeholders met in Istanbul and launched the KMC Acceleration, an effort to accelerate the uptake of effective KMC globally. The KMC Acceleration was launched in response to the mismatch between the strong evidence for KMC in reducing mortality of LBW babies and its low level of implementation in countries with high NMR.  Following the Istanbul meeting, the Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) program at Save the Children led the formation of The Kangaroo Mother Care Acceleration Partnership (KAP), a 60+ member coalition of global KMC stakeholders from international organizations, professional associations, academia, ministries of health, and development agencies. KAP is now in its second year.

Methods: KAP functions by mobilizing working groups to meet the needs of the global KMC community.  Prior working groups include a research working group to identify KMC research priorities, and indicators working group to develop and test a core set of KMC indicators.  Results from these working groups have been shared elsewhere. In its second year, KAP is mobilizing working groups in the following areas: developing and testing of clinical standards, professional association engagement, and innovations.  KAP is also working to accelerate KMC uptake in seven focus countries (Malawi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia) by providing avenues for sharing learning between countries and technical assistance to ministries of health and relevant decision-makers.

Results: The most recent progress and updates from each working group and status of KMC acceleration progress of selected focus countries will be presented during the session, focusing on outputs from working groups and common lessons and challenges faced by select focus countries.

Conclusion: The KAP has been a successful mechanism for gathering KMC experts to harness collective expertise and produce outputs that meet the needs of the KMC global community.