The Roadmap is available in multiple languages: English, French, Spanish, and Arabic
Humanitarian contexts are diverse, with varying baseline mortality, economic development, health system capacity, population dynamics, and local burden of disease. Populations affected by crises may also be from various groups such as refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, or local populations. They may live in remote rural areas or camps, but increasingly they are integrated in urban areas. The distinction between a humanitarian and development setting is often unclear, and efforts to improve maternal and newborn health must bridge both situations and be coordinated. The supporting systems and host populations often lack the will or capacity to meet the basic needs of persons displaced in their surrounding communities. The challenges in conflict settings for mothers and newborns are additionally compounded by insecurity and the natural focus of services on trauma and population safety. The Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Every Newborn in Humanitarian Settings seeks to address newborn heath across these diverse contexts, with recommendations that can be applied generally, but can also be relevant to some specific contexts more than others.
This roadmap was developed with input from more than 80 individuals, led by a Steering Committee with a strong stake in improving maternal and newborn health in humanitarian contexts including non-governmental, UN, academic, and donor agencies. A multi-sectoral experts meeting was held in February 2019 to validate the critical needs, challenges, and opportunities highlighted in this roadmap for newborn health in humanitarian settings. Recommendations from the global meeting and materials from development of this roadmap can be found here.
The audience for this roadmap includes stakeholders from both the development and humanitarian communities, including maternal and newborn health as well as diverse sectors of the humanitarian response. This document sets out a vision for how improvements could be made for mothers and newborns in humanitarian settings. An advocacy paper accompanies this document, and will be followed by a work plan detailing a specific plan of action.