Every Newborn: An Advocacy Toolkit and Guidance Manual for Ending Preventable Deaths

"You may be acting as a lone crusader or as part of a larger advocacy effort. Either way, you share an objective with all other advocates: to have your story move audiences from apathy to empathy to action."

Offered by Every Newborn, this guide offers practical tools for country programmes and stakeholders to support advocacy for improving newborn and maternal health and preventing stillbirths. It is intended for use by staff in United Nations system country offices and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as members of the global Every Newborn group and other relevant stakeholders.

Every Newborn is a joint action platform for the reduction of preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths, with links to the agenda for ending preventable maternal deaths. Since the 2014 endorsement of the global Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) by 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly, regional and global support for its implementation has been led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The document provides a repository of quick references and examples to the user in order to show how to undertake advocacy and communication in various national and local contexts. Supporting the Every Newborn initiative, the toolkit outlines a wide range of options for outreach and advocacy activities tailored to specific audiences. It includes key messages on newborn and maternal health, as well as examples of letters to policymakers, briefs, press releases, social media content, and other relevant materials to make the case for improving the quality of care and scaling up newborn and maternal health interventions. Each country is expected to update relevant data and adapt messages and templates to its local context.

The toolkit can be used, for example, to create momentum around key dates for newborn health, such as World Prematurity Day or World Breastfeeding Week. Or it can help to effectively position newborn health messages for strategic engagement with policymakers or professional health associations.

Table of contents:

I. Introduction
A. Purpose of this toolkit
B. Background: Why advocacy is crucial?

II. Advocating for Every Newborn
A. What is the 'Every Newborn' partnership?
B. Quality, Equity, Dignity in health services

III. Key messages and facts for maternal and newborn health
A. Every Newborn addresses critical 'unfinished business'
B. The basic facts on newborn and maternal health
C. Why everyone needs to take action: main messages
D. Quality, Equity, Dignity in services

IV. Planning advocacy and communication activities for maternal and newborn health in countries
A. Introduction to main communication approaches
B. Key steps in developing advocacy and communication strategies
C. Examples of advocacy and communication activities

V. Country examples of strategies and communication initiatives for maternal, newborn and child health
Country case studies
Regional case study: South Asia

Annex 1: Every Newborn advocacy within the ENAP Results Framework for 2017-2018

Annex 2: Resources for Advocacy and Outreach
I. Basic advocacy tools
II. Examples and resources

Annex 3: Templates, toolkits and guides for advocacy and communications
I. Sample letters for: policy-makers, professional associations, religious leaders
II. Examples of social media messages
III. Advocacy toolkits and guides

"The toolkit highlights the importance of amplifying the voices of parents, especially those who may have experienced traumatic events such as a stillbirth. Their voices are often forgotten and need to be heard."