Early essential newborn care: a decade of scaling up quality, life-saving interventions across East Asia and the Pacific (2013-2023).

In 2013, WHO partnered with Ministries of Health and development partners in nine countries in Asia and the Pacific to develop, test and scale-up of Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC), a package of simple evidence-based interventions shown to prevent or treat the most important causes of newborn morbidity and mortality, delivered around birth or in the early newborn period. This effort became the largest regional collaboration to improve the quality of newborn care globally. This article discusses the key achievements and progress in the introduction and scale-up of EENC over the past decade, as well as the remaining challenges and future directions. Policy and programme documents, cross-sectional facility assessments and study data show that EENC was widely adopted across nine countries between 2013 and 2023 using a coaching and data-based approach, with sustained and vastly improved quality of care for all newborns including those born preterm, low birth weight and by caesarean section. Implementation replaced ineffective training-based approaches with on-the-job clinical coaching tailored to routine environments. Multidisciplinary hospital teams drove national scale-up and systems improvements by identifying what their facilities and those in their catchment population needed to support practice change. The periodic collection and immediate use of practice data for tracking progress and making programme decisions represented a significant change in how public health programme implementation and scale-up was conducted in the region.

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Publication Details

Journal
PubMed
Published
2026-06-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2025-021083
Primary Topic
Global Maternal and Child Health
Type
article
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article

Early essential newborn care: a decade of scaling up quality, life-saving interventions across East Asia and the Pacific (2013-2023).

Sethikar Im, Sano Phal, Outhevanh Kounnavongsa, Anthony Calibo et al.
PubMed
Global Maternal and Child Health
article

Early essential newborn care: a decade of scaling up quality, life-saving interventions across East Asia and the Pacific (2013-2023).

Sethikar Im, Sano Phal, Outhevanh Kounnavongsa, Anthony Calibo, Thyna Orelly, Pamela Putney, Howard Sobel, Priya Mannava, Sidonn Krang, Rattana Kim, Hiromi Obara, Sommana Rattana, Hoàng Anh Tuấn, Tung Rathavy, Madeline Salva, Annie Jatobatu, Shogo Kubota, Li Zhao, Elizabeth Mason, Eunyoung Ko, Tuan Dinh, Maria Asuncion Silvestre, Tsogzolmaa Bayandorj, Kannitha Cheang, Thi Quynh Nga Pham, Edward Waramin, K C Khe Tran, Hien Van Pham, Ruby Constantino, Tsevelmaa Baldan, Marwynn Bello, Y Meng Chhour, Tao Xu, Jacqueline Kitong, John Charles Scott Murray, Hoang Tran, Jessica Yaipupu, Bouasengnignom Phrasithdeth, Barnabas Roland, Vimonlath Singharaj, Vanya Delgermaa
article en

Abstract

In 2013, WHO partnered with Ministries of Health and development partners in nine countries in Asia and the Pacific to develop, test and scale-up of Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC), a package of simple evidence-based interventions shown to prevent or treat the most important causes of newborn morbidity and mortality, delivered around birth or in the early newborn period. This effort became the largest regional collaboration to improve the quality of newborn care globally. This article discusses the key achievements and progress in the introduction and scale-up of EENC over the past decade, as well as the remaining challenges and future directions. Policy and programme documents, cross-sectional facility assessments and study data show that EENC was widely adopted across nine countries between 2013 and 2023 using a coaching and data-based approach, with sustained and vastly improved quality of care for all newborns including those born preterm, low birth weight and by caesarean section. Implementation replaced ineffective training-based approaches with on-the-job clinical coaching tailored to routine environments. Multidisciplinary hospital teams drove national scale-up and systems improvements by identifying what their facilities and those in their catchment population needed to support practice change. The periodic collection and immediate use of practice data for tracking progress and making programme decisions represented a significant change in how public health programme implementation and scale-up was conducted in the region.

PubMedVol. 11(6)
Department of Health (PH), University of Papua New Guinea (PG), Ministry of Health (KH), Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CN), Mahosot Hospital (LA), Da Nang Hospital (VN), University of the South Pacific - Solomon Islands Campus (SB), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB), Rural Development Agency (LA), National Center for Global Health and Medicine (JP), Ministry of Health (LA), Martha's Vineyard Hospital (US), Documentation Center of Cambodia (KH), Viet Nam University Of Traditional Medicine (VN), Ministry of Health (MN), Health Strategy and Policy Institute (VN), World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (PH), Ministry of Health (VN), Vanuatu Cultural Centre (VU), World Health Organization - Philippines (PH)
Partnerships for the goals
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Global Maternal and Child Health
DOISourceOpenAlex
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