Ifakara Health Institute’s NEST360 program alongside NEST360 country teams from Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, UK and US are holding a global meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from June 14 to 16, 2022.

The meeting brings together national stakeholders from Unicef, WHO, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and PO-RALG – giving all attendees the opportunity to discuss how to maximize the impact of NEST360 by June 2030 and beyond, through high-quality implementation for small & sick newborn care across all program areas and in all Phase 1 countries.

In line with the meeting agenda, participants will focus their discussions on the impact, integrated implementation and institutionalization and innovation. To kick off, they will reflect, and link action items to current progress for impact maximization and shared learnings.

On day one, the NEST360 teams from Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya shared highlights of their country Quarterly Review Meeting (QRMs). The highlights were presented by NEST360 Country Directors: Evelyne Zimba from Malawi; Catherine from Tanzania; Opeyemi Odedere from Nigeria and Helen Bokea from Kenya.

The team also shared the key challenges impending impact in Phase 1 of the NEST program within their respective countries which included; staff rotation issues, unavailability of consumables, limited newborn care health financing, streamlining of data, and institutionalization among other issues.

Addressing these issues, the team vowed to “find solutions and a proposal on how to deal with them” specifying quality improvement as the priority as well as “institutionalizing things done by NEST so that they are sustainable.”

Country teams also shared progress they have made towards high-quality implementation across all NEST program areas with focus on maximizing impact whilst also moving towards institutionalization. Following each presentation, brief discussions were held across NEST360 countries giving an opportunity for the participants to learn from each other.

In attendance at the opening session of the meeting was Ifakara Chief Executive Director, Dr. Honorati Masanja who officiated it.

View more photos from this event here.

More: About the NEST360 program
Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360) is a global consortium committed to reducing newborn deaths by 50% in hospitals, currently conducted in Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, and Nigeria. The program is an evidence-based model for sustainable health systems change to close the gaps in technology, markets, and human resources for implementation of quality hospital-based newborn care at national scale.

In Tanzania, the NEST program works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, to improve the quality of comprehensive newborn care units as stipulated in the National guideline for neonatal care and establishment of neonatal care units.

Phase I of the program started late 2019 in three tertiary hospitals i.e., Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH Upanga), Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH Mloganzila) and Mbeya Zonal Referral hospital. Implementation at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre will start in February 2022. The three regional referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam i.e. Mwananyamala, Amana and Temeke started implementation in 2020. The tertiary hospitals will be the ‘learning hubs’ to ensure mentorship and supportive supervision within the selected regions.

> Learn more about the NEST program here.