In 2014, the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) adopted a policy of universal cleansing of the umbilical cord stump with a single application of 7.1% chlorhexidine aqueous solution (CHX). Between 2015 and 2018, the MOHFW and development partners worked to scale up CHX cord cleansing nationally. The US Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) MaMoni Health Systems Strengthening (MaMoni HSS) Project was a key development partner supporting this scale-up. MaMoni HSS support included: technical assistance and financial support for developing policies, guidelines, and training curriculum; financial support for training; and evaluation of facility readiness.
This brief presents the learnings from the documentation study on the scale-up of cord cleansing with CHX in Bangladesh between 2015 and 2018. The results of this study are intended to inform continuing efforts to expand CHX coverage and future scale-up efforts of other innovations in Bangladesh, as well as the CHX scale-up efforts of other countries.