During this session, we will review the essential definitions, conceptual frameworks and aspects of maternal mortality and morbidity (including levels and trends of maternal mortality; direct and indirect causes, maternal mortality measurement, inequalities in maternal mortality [by country and socioeconomic group], and impact of maternal deaths on families); a brief history of the safe motherhood movement in the broader context of sexual and reproductive health and rights; access and quality of antenatal, delivery and post-partum care; an overview of evidence-based clinical and community based interventions to improve maternal health; and the roles of research, policy, programs and advocacy. Learning objectives: 1. To learn the basic aspects of maternal mortality and morbidity. 2. To acquire a historic perspective and familiarize with the most recent developments in the field of maternal health / maternal mortality reduction. 3. To put maternal health in the broader context of sexual and reproductive health and rights and women and health.

This session will give the latest data to help accelerate progress towards 2030 for reducing newborn deaths and linked disability outcomes, as well as stillbirths. Topics include trends and causes of neonatal deaths, later disability and stillbirths and key elements of care at birth, essential newborn care and care of small and sick newborns. The highest impact strategies and context-specific health system challenges will be outlined, including new opportunities that the Every Newborn Action Plan can help catalyse and the important links with Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality. Learning objectives: 1. Know the latest data on progress towards newborn survival and stillbirths around the world and the new mortality targets when the Millennium Development Goals end. 2. Understand priorities to accelerate progress towards newborn survival and health, notably who is being left behind, and which causes of death and risk factors should be targeted, and how. 3. Know about the Every Newborn Action Plan and how this can help countries to accelerate progress and improve programmatic measurement.

Description: This session will provide participants with an insight into the activities of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) MiP Working Group and the recently launched 'Call to Action' for the scale-up of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP), a highly cost-effective intervention with the potential to save many maternal and neonatal lives whose coverage remains low in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of the Malaria in Pregnancy Working Group (MiP WG) is to provide the RBM Partnership with strategic advice on best practices for scaling up interventions for the prevention and control of malaria during pregnancy towards the achievement of RBM targets and MDGs. Learning objectives: 1. To gain an insight into the activities of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Malaria in Pregnancy (MiP) Working Group. 2. To understand the main challenges in scaling-up of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) .

Despite substantial progress, MDGs 4 and 5 will not be achieved and maternal and neonatal/child health will remain a global health priority well past 2015. Efforts to accelerate progress need to continue. This session will discuss effective approaches that “fast track” countries are implementing, those countries that were on track to achieve MDG4 and 5 in 2012 ahead of comparable countries. Extensive evidence exists on investments, interventions and policies required to reduce maternal and child mortality. Much less is known about why some countries perform better than others in preventing maternal and child deaths and on the strategies they use to accelerate progress, even where levels of income are similar. Are there global principles for success? Participants will discuss these issues in the context of the new Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health that will be launched at the UN General Assembly alongside the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. Learning objectives of this session are: • Awareness of the main health challenges facing women, children and adolescents, and the links to safe mothers and newborns • Understanding of the success factors in reducing maternal and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries during the MDG period • Application of this knowledge to reviewing the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, 2015.

Bangladesh has witnessed significant progress in improving reproductive, maternal, and child health and is on track to reach Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. Between 1990 and 2011, the under-5 child mortality rate and maternal registered a 60% and 66% decline respectively. Improving maternal health outcomes requires strategic efforts that address forces from within and outside the health system. It is important to consider factors at the household and community levels, as well as within the health system. This presentation will analyze the factors that contributed to improved maternal and reproductive health outcomes in the country. This session, is focused on those “interventions” that contributed most to maternal survival and improved reproductive health outcomes in the country. Using an integrated analytical framework that is focused on those factors that led to improved outcomes, called the “Drivers and Enablers Framework for Improving Maternal and Reproductive Health Outcomes”. The “enablers,” which are those policies, strategies, and actions outside the health sector (contextual, multisectoral, and community levels), and the “drivers,” which are interventions at the health sector and the maternal and reproductive health program as well as behavior change interventions at the household level. This session will allow participants: 1. To understand the factors that contributed to improve maternal and reproductive health in Bangladesh. 2. To understand the integrated analytical framework “Drivers and Enablers Framework for Improving Maternal and Reproductive Health Outcomes”.

As a result of increased funding and renewed commitment of the development stakeholders, child mortality has substantially decreased in the last decade worldwide, dropping by over a third from the 9.6 estimated million deaths in 2000 to circa 6.3 million deaths in 2013. However neonatal mortality rate has declined at a slower pace: 2.76 million babies die within the first month of life accounting for 44% of under-five mortality, and an additional 2.6 million babies are stillborn. Moreover progress has been uneven across regions and countries: most newborn deaths concentrate in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Two-thirds of all newborn mortality occurs in 12 countries, six of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. Infectious diseases account for at least 23% of the estimated 2.76 million annual deaths occurring in newborns, and up to half of all stillbirths. The gram-positive bacterium Group B streptococcus (GBS) stands out amongst the major microorganisms responsible for perinatal infections on account of its large burden and associated virulence. However, despite the existence of proven and highly effective interventions (i.e. screening, antibiotic prophylaxis) that can reduce significantly the incidence of neonatal invasive infections in developed countries, they are not implemented routinely in LMICs yet. In low resource settings effective delivery approaches and scaling up of interventions are needed to ensure newborn survival. Using the example of the GBS, in this session participants will be confronted with the question: how can we get what works to happen? Learning objectives: 1. To discuss the knowledge gaps faced by MoH at the national level in terms of the evaluation of GBS associated burden, morbidity and mortality. 2. To discuss the practicalities and challenges of diagnosing and preventing GBS disease in the developing world and the necessary strategies that could be put in place in LMICs. 3. To discuss the need for alternative tools

A child's opportunities early on in life can make or break their chances to become a thriving, successful adult—and access to the most basic, vital services is often unequal, determined by gender, ethnicity, geography, economic circumstances, or other inherent factors. In order to take a closer look at this issue, ISGlobal and the World Bank Group are hosting a discussion on human opportunity among children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The conversation will focus not only on the latest findings and research from the World Bank Group’s recent publication, Do African Children Have an Equal Chance?, but also on how research in this area can be used to inform policies and programs to improve equality in access to basic services for children across the region, in order to level the playing field from day one.