The National Evaluation Platform for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, and Nutrition: From idea to implementation

Accelerating progress in women’s and children’s health requires scaling up efficacious interventions and measuring progress towards defined targets. However, determining what is effective in a particular setting and optimizing investments is challenging given the complexity of health systems and the diversity of contexts surrounding maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (MNCH&N) policies and programs in low– and middle–income countries (LMICs). There have been various global efforts to synthesize evidence (eg, World Health Organization Guidelines; various Lancet series on maternal child health and nutrition issues, Cochrane Collaborative reviews, Disease Control Priorities Project and monitor progress towards shared goals (eg, Sustainable Development Goals, World Health Assembly 2025 Nutrition Targets, the Countdown to 2030, Family Planning 2020) which have some influence on country-level priorities and plans [1–6]. Ultimately, however, national and sub-national stakeholders want evidence from their country to guide their policy and program decisions. Too often this evidence is not available when and where decisions makers need it.