Integrated Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (IMNCH) strategy: how has it advanced in Africa?

Why IMNCH Strategy? • In 2000, at the Millennium Summit held in New York, World Leaders pledged to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health among other Goals (Millennium Development Goals) to ensure human development by the year 2015. Since the millennium declaration, Nigeria and many other countries are not on track to attaining the targets for reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. • There are effective interventions to significantly reduce child mortality and improve maternal mortality. The problem is that they are not delivered to the populations in need at high enough coverage ( e.g., 80% immunization coverage). • Efforts have been largely fragmented and have not taken into good account the interdependency of the different stages of life. For instance, what we fail to give to a mother today in terms of health care, could affect the baby yet to be born and may have intergenerational effect that accrue to affect the child in school and his/her ability to attain the fullest potential for development. • The situation calls for a new approach to doing business in health to improve the health of Mothers, newborns and older children. Thus, the recent development what is now known as a Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Strategy and the birth of a partnership for maternal, newborn and child health whose primary aim is to support countries to reduce newborn and child mortality and improve maternal health.