Quality of care for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health
Why quality of care for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health?
Improvement to health care delivery requires a deliberate focus on the quality of health services, which involves providing effective, safe, people-centred care that is timely, equitable, integrated and efficient.
The urgent need for action for Universal Health Coverage with quality was set out in the United Nations Resolution on Universal Health Coverage adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.
Increasing evidence shows that ensuring the quality care prevents death and disability. High quality health systems could prevent an estimated half of all maternal and newborn deaths alone according to the Lancet Commission on High Quality Health Systems (2018).
Quality does not occur spontaneously. The challenge to deliver quality care is faced at all levels - national, district and in health facility. The potential of health system performance and health outcomes rests on all stakeholders.
Work of the department on quality of care
The WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing is pursuing a vision where by 2030, every woman, child and adolescent in every setting has access and uses quality care. This vision is aligned with the goals and targets related to maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals and in the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' health 2016-2030.
To enable this vision, the Department is leading a number of initiatives including midwifery led quality of care, the respectful care for maternal and newborn health, community engagement, private sector engagement for quality services and, quality of care measurement. The Department is providing the secretariat and leading the multi-country and multi-partner Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
Quality of care learning hub
The WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing has recently launched the Quality of Care Learning Hub.
The platform was developed by the secretariat of the Network for Improving quality of care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and provides access to two resources.
- a repository MNCH quality improvement (QI) initiatives which were tried, tested and shared from across 10 Network countries
- a dashboard of common MNH quality of care indicators collected from learning sites in the Network Countries to track progress in implementing quality improvement interventions.
Selected publications
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Standards for improving the quality of care for children and young adolescents in health facilities
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 3 targets as elaborated in the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescent’s...
Much progress has been made during the past two decades in coverage of births in health facilities; however, reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality...
Global standards for quality health-care services for adolescents: Standards and criteria
Global initiatives are urging countries to prioritize quality as a way of reinforcing human rights-based approaches to health. Yet evidence from...
Related publications
Improving the quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health: Implementation guide for national,...
This implementation guide provides practical guidance for policy-makers, programme managers, health practitioners and other actors working to establish...
Guidance on developing national learning health-care systems to sustain and scale up delivery of quality...
This guide provides direction on how countries can develop and strengthen national learning health-care systems to learn how to improve, sustain and scale...
It is estimated that between 5.7 and 8.4 million deaths are attributed to poor quality care each year in low- and middle-income countries, which accounts...
Implementation of maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response as part of quality of care efforts...
This knowledge brief is developed to support policy-makers, managers, practitioners and implementing partners engaged in improving quality of care (QoC)...
This brief provides a summary of progress in implementing the LEADERSHIP strategic objective and emerging lessons.
A brief on progress and learning from implementation.
Summary brief - The network for improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health
This summary brief highlights a set a of critical levers that countries interested in implementing QoC at scale need to consider in the report.
This brief provides a summary of progress in implementing the ACTION strategic objective and emerging lessons.
The Quality of Care Network report: Evolution, Implementation and Progress 2017-2020 provides a critical and timely account of how countries...
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