PMNCH FAQ
This FAQ is available in all six languages, as well as in Italian and Portuguese
Why a global health partnership for maternal, newborn and child health?
Each year, about 350,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth, and almost 9 million children die before their fifth birthday, almost 40% in the first month of life. Recent research finds that at least two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented with proven, cost-effective interventions that could and should be available to every woman and child today. By expanding access to these interventions and integrating maternal, newborn and child health efforts, an estimated 6 million deaths of women and children could be prevented each year. Given the scope of this challenge, no individual country, organization, or agency can address it alone.
What is the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH)?
PMNCH is a global health partnership launched in September 2005 to accelerate efforts towards achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 --to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health. The Partnership aim is to intensify and harmonize national, regional and global action to improve maternal, newborn and child health. This partnership is the result of a merger of three existing partnerships: the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, the Child Survival Partnership and the Healthy Newborn Partnership.
Who is in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health?
PMNCH joins together the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) communities, encouraging unified and effective approaches that promise greater progress than in the past. The Partnership is made up of a broad constituency of more than 400 members representing partner countries, UN and multilateral agencies, nongovernmental organizations, health professional associations, bilateral donors and foundations, academic and research institutions and the private sector.
What does PMNCH offer?
PMNCH provides a forum through which members can combine their strengths and implement solutions that no one partner could achieve alone.
What are PMNCH's key objectives in 2012-2015?
The Partnership’s work will be focused through three Strategic Objectives (SOs), which reflect the Partnership’s value proposition and provide the framework for developing individual outputs and activities:
- SO 1: Broker knowledge and innovation for action, leading to increased access to, and use of, knowledge and innovations to enhance policy, service delivery and fi nancing mechanisms.
- SO 2: Advocate for mobilizing and aligning resources and for greater engagement, leading to additional resource commitments for RMNCH, visibility of women’s and children’s health issues in relevant forums, and consensus on evidence-based policy development and implementation.
- SO 3: Promote accountability for resources and results, leading to better information to monitor RMNCH results, as well as better and more systematic tracking of how resource commitments are actually allocated.
Partnership Operational Principles
In achieving these objectives, the Partnership will structure its activities around four operational principles:
- Being partner-centric, by supporting Partners to deliver the Partnership’s objectives, without replacing or replicating Partners’ work or their internal governance / accountability processes.
- Focusing on convening (i.e. providing a platform for Partners to discuss and agree on ways to align their existing and new activities) and brokering (i.e. actively brokering knowledge, innovations, collaborations, etc. among the Partners).
- Being driven by country demand and regional priorities.
- Promoting the Continuum of Care approach to improve women’s and children’s health.
The success of the Partnership will be measured in its ability to achieve the identified outcomes for each of its three Strategic Objectives, as summarized in Table 1 below, and ultimately by supporting the Partners to deliver their respective mandates, and achieve better RMNCH outcomes in high-burden countries than would otherwise have been possible.
What is a "partner-centric model"?
PMNCH's mission is to support the global health community to work successfully towards achieving MDGs 4 and 5. The mission will be best achieved by enhancing partners’ interactions and using their comparative advantages to contribute to this common goal. This "partner-centric" approach has become the key theme of the Partnership's strategy. Using this approach, lead partners are expected to drive key initiatives with the Secretariat providing an effective platform for collaboration, facilitation and knowledge exchange.
How can all members and partners contribute?
Lead partners and their focal points, as well as contributing partner organizations, have been identified in each of the six Priority Action areas. Members wishing to contribute may contact focal points; names are provided in the strategy document.
How do you join the Partnership?
International and national organizations, governmental and non-governmental agencies, partner countries, donors, foundations, health professional organizations, academic and research institutes and members of the private sector who have a shared interest in, and commitment to, the achievement of the maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals, and are committed to short- and long-term measures to achieve them, are invited to make an application and join the Partnership.