Countdown to 2030
Tracking Progress Towards Universal Coverage for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health
The 2017 Countdown to 2030 report is the first Countdown report in the context of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The report synthesizes data on the current situation and trends in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition from a wide array of sources, including the profiles of the 81 Countdown priority countries, which together account for 95% of maternal deaths and 90% of deaths among children under age 5. Countdown’s primary focus is the continuum of care, with some expansion into nutrition, adolescent health (limited to adolescent girls’ reproductive health), early childhood development, quality of care and effective coverage, and conflict settings.
Key Messages
- The 81 Countdown countries have made progress but remain far from universal coverage for most essential interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition.
- Major investment is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal targets for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. Investment must be guided by reliable and timely data on intervention coverage, inequities in coverage and quality of care (including in conflict settings).
- To address the broader Sustainable Development Goal agenda, measurement improvements should focus on strengthening vital statistics, understanding drivers of intervention coverage change and generating better data on nutrition programs, early childhood development and adolescent health.
- Strengthening country analytical capacity to collect and use data, a priority for Countdown is crucial to improve monitoring and accountability for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.