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By Sharon Onyango
County targets critical first 48 hours with data-driven, coordinated maternal and neonatal care strategy
Siaya County has escalated its campaign to reduce neonatal mortality, unveiling a tightly coordinated, partner-led strategy aimed at saving newborn lives and strengthening maternal health outcomes across the region.
In a high-level convergence convened by the County Department of Health, the County Health Management Team (CHMT), Jhpiego, and the Health Environment Research Association (HERA) forged a unified roadmap that will guide maternal and newborn health interventions through 2027.
The renewed push zeroes in on the first 48 hours after birth—the most vulnerable window for newborn survival—signaling a decisive shift toward precision, speed, and accountability in care delivery.
Central to the strategy is the rollout of the Smart Start nurturing care initiative, a transformative model designed to seamlessly link community-level care with health facilities. The approach strengthens collaboration between Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and clinical teams, ensuring newborns identified in households are rapidly tracked, referred, and managed within the formal health system.
In a major data integration breakthrough, postnatal information collected at the community level will now be transmitted to health facilities within 45 hours, significantly improving response times for at-risk newborns and enabling early, life-saving interventions.
At the same time, partners have committed to scaling up Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC)—a globally proven intervention for premature and low-birth-weight infants—while intensifying capacity building for frontline health workers. Already, 20 healthcare workers and 20 Community Health Promoters have been trained under the HERA and Matibabu programmes, strengthening the county’s ability to deliver high-quality postnatal and community-based newborn care.
The engagement also served as a strategic stock-taking forum, with stakeholders reviewing progress, identifying systemic gaps, and agreeing on shared priorities for the 2026/2027 financial year. A key outcome was the resolution to develop a comprehensive partner resource and financing map to eliminate duplication, sharpen coordination, and align investments with county health priorities.
Further, participants endorsed a joint advocacy framework bringing together the county government, development partners, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to drive accountability and unlock sustainable financing for newborn health programmes.
To sustain momentum and ensure real-time learning, the county will roll out weekly knowledge-sharing webinars to track implementation, monitor outcomes, and continuously refine interventions.
By consolidating partner efforts under a single, results-oriented work plan, Siaya County is tightening the link between community and facility-based care while reinforcing a clear policy commitment: no mother or newborn should be left behind.
With this bold, synchronized approach, Siaya is positioning itself as a frontline leader in Kenya’s fight against neonatal deaths—turning partnerships into performance and strategy into survival.
