November 26, 2014
Countdown to 2015 continues to move forward on a series of in-depth Country Case Studies that seek to understand and explain how progress on women’s and children’s health was achieved in priority countries. On November 26th, a research team led by the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima presented preliminary findings of the ongoing Peru case study at a technical meeting held at the Lima offices of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). The meeting was attended by more than 40 technical and policy experts from the health and related sectors, including representatives of several government ministries.
Lima, Peru
November 26, 2014
A research team led by the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima has presented preliminary findings of an ongoing Countdown Country Case Study in Peru to more than 100 technical and policy experts from the health and related sectors, including representatives of several government ministries. This technical meeting was held at the Lima offices of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) on November 26th.
At the meeting, Dr. Luis Huicho, the study’s principal investigator, presented data and analysis developed in the Peru case study. Dr. Cesar Victora of the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil also presented Countdown’s perspectives on the development of the Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 era. Following these presentations was a panel discussion on the case study’s findings and their implications for continued RMNCH progress in Peru.
On the day after the meeting, Dr. Huicho and Dr. Adrián Díaz of PAHO/WHO were interviewed about the case study’s results on one of Peru’s leading television news programs, Ampliación de Noticias, on the RPP network:
From 1990 to 2013, as shown in its Countdown country profile and equity profile, Peru achieved deep reductions in child and newborn mortality, already exceeding the MDG 4 target, and it is making strong progress toward meeting the MDG 5 target of reducing its maternal mortality ratio by ¾ by 2015. The Peru research team has been conducting this in-depth Countdown Country Case Study to better understand Peru’s success in reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality and stunting. A broader, policy-orientated meeting will take place in Peru early in 2015, and the study’s findings are currently being prepared for journal publication.
The Peru study is one of a number of in-depth Country Case Studies that seek to understand and explain how progress on women’s and children’s health was achieved in priority countries. By strengthening country-level capacity to conduct this research, Countdown aims to build a portfolio of studies that assess multiple outcomes across the continuum of care, and that include attention to success stories as well as areas where progress was not made, and analyse the reasons why. As in Peru, all Countdown case studies are led by in-country institutions that are independent of RMNCH program implementation. Countdown case studies have been completed in Niger and Bangladesh, and preliminary findings from a third, in Tanzania, were published in a policy brief launched at a national Country Countdown meeting in May 2014 by President Kikwete. Additional Countdown Country Case Studies are currently being conducted in Afghanistan, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Pakistan.