As many countries develop and cost national newborn plan, it has become clear that there is a need for more guidance for a harmonized and evidence based approach. UNICEF developed a planning and costing resource kit that aims to fill the information gap by bringing together the aspects of different planning and costing tools, offer practical guidance to apply the available tool as well as best practices and success factors and challenges countries faced and strategies they adopted
A consultant conducted key informant interviews with a total of 18 experts that included UNICEF regional and country offices, WHO, UNFPA, Save the Children and independent consultants involved in national newborn action plan development and costing. The interview explored the key steps and processes, data and tools used and its usefulness as well as and challenges and solutions identified and key lessons learned. The respondents reviewed and enriched interview scripts. In addition global newborn health technical and program experts reviewed the document. The resource kit is intended for use by those engaged with planning and costing national newborn health activities, such as health planners, health managers, and technical experts in maternal and newborn health.
The guide is organized in such a way that it could be read and used sequentially or selectively based on current needs and stages of planning. Following brief introductions to each of the tools available for planning and costing newborn action plans, it presents experiences from countries. Chapters cover all key processes required for developing newborn action plans and include: situation analysis / desk review, bottleneck analysis, prioritization of activities, equity analysis, monitoring and evaluation framework, EQUIST, LiST, costing and investment case development. The annexes provide sample templates such as agenda for partners’ consultative and planning workshops as well as TOR for recruiting consultants to lead the costing and planning process.
Download the toolkit and user guide >>
Blog by Tedbabe D. Hailegebriel, Health Specialist (Maternal and Newborn Health), UNICEF Health Section