Moving Forward, Together: From Commitment to Action. Country Ownership, Financing, and the Road to 2030

This is the third post in a three-part series recapping NEST360’s participation at IMNHC 2026.

First: Blog 1 — Moving Forward, Together: What IMNHC 2026 Meant for Newborn Health

Previous: Blog 2 —Moving Forward, Together: Systems Win, Systems Win. Single Interventions Do Not.

The Financing Case

Health financing emerged as a critical concern at International Maternal Newborn Health Conference 2026 (IMNHC 2026), with discussions underscoring that current funding for newborn care remains insufficient, particularly in the context of declining donor aid. Presenters emphasized the urgent need for governments to increase domestic investment in newborn and maternal health, while also exploring partnerships with non-traditional funders to support sustainability, scale, and the continuation of hard-won gains.  Governments at the conference signaled willingness to fund newborn care and expressed interest in partnerships with other funders.

Health economists from NEST360 highlighted the growing need for stronger economic evidence to guide investment and prioritization in newborn care, an area where data has historically remained limited. Drawing on implementation experience across partner countries, NEST360 is helping generate cost estimates and investment cases that governments can use for budgeting and resource prioritization toward quality newborn care for all. Presentations showcased case studies demonstrating the value of direct government investment in small and sick newborn care, particularly through targeted investments across multiple health system components, including infrastructure, increased human resources, especially nurses, specialized neonatal care training, and consistent availability of consumables required for high-quality care. The presentation concluded that investing in small and sick newborn care yields a high return. An analysis of scaling up newborn care in Kenya estimates returns of $12–14 per $1 invested in the best-case scenario. NEST360 Health Economist, Rosemary Kamuyu stated that, “Investing in newborn health is both economically sound and a matter of equity and justice.”

The economists also noted that the financing picture remains incomplete in ways that demand attention. While many countries have focused heavily on strengthening the supply side of care through infrastructure, equipment, and workforce investments, presenters emphasized the need to address demand-side barriers as well. An analysis of financial protection policies across 44 sub-Saharan African countries showed that out-of-pocket costs remain a major obstacle to accessing quality newborn care, particularly for small and sick newborns. The findings, including examples presented from Nigeria, highlighted that newborn care is often absorbed into broader maternal or child health financing structures, leaving limited dedicated financial protection for newborn-specific services. Presenters stressed that achieving universal health coverage will require countries to more intentionally include small and sick newborn care within national benefit packages and health insurance schemes.

Presentations on financing highlighted the importance of understanding how newborn care aligns with each country’s economic system. For example, as governments evaluate investment cases and develop, they could consider that their partnerships with high-impact, newborn care programming are a central part of the healthcare system. Presenters explained that allocating funding specifically to newborns can catalyze broader health system gains. Countries like Tanzania and Kenya are already demonstrating this, with investment frameworks showing clear evidence of value for money and lives saved.

Country Ownership

NEST360 presentations at the IMNHC 2026 conference underscored how sustainable change requires government-led actions.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Hon. Aden Duale, alongside the Director General of Health and senior Ministry officials, engaged directly with NEST360’s work at the NEST360 booth, asking important questions focused on what it would take to scale results nationally in Kenya. George Okello, NEST360’s Country Director for Kenya, captured what that engagement meant in practice:

The conference closed with parliamentarians from 11 African countries (Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, The Gambia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) making public commitments to anchor maternal and newborn health at the highest political levels, to dedicate budgetary provisions for lifesaving commodities, to invest in midwifery training and deployment, and to pursue regional mechanisms to improve procurement efficiency. As Lilani Brinkman, Member of Parliament in the Namibia National Assembly, framed it, the question is no longer what should be done but:

And on the Country Delegation Day that followed the formal conference, 35 country teams did something even more concrete; they reviewed learnings and committed to three priority actions each.

Reaching the Last Mile

Those who joined IMNHC 2026 participated in a discussion of what it means to implement quality newborn care in settings beyond referral hospitals in capital cities, where many people receive care. As shared during the conference, through its partnership in Ethiopia, SLL360 (Saving Little Lives & NEST360) is learning  on implementation across the country, including in the Afar and Somali regions of Ethiopia that include pastoralist communities, mobile populations, and significant infrastructure constraints. The key takeaway was that for models to succeed in these settings, they must be designed from the outset with these contextual constraints and realities in mind. One-size-fits-all implementation is a guarantee of inequity. Adapting models to unique contexts, including hard-to-reach communities, locations with constrained infrastructure, and places with diverse cultural identities, is foundational.

Quality care must also be trusted care. Several sessions at IMNHC 2026 highlighted the importance of community voice, respectful care, and the role of social norms in shaping health outcomes. The discussions emphasized that expanding access to services alone is not enough, rather, care must also be experienced as respectful, trusted by families, and designed in partnership with communities if health interventions are to achieve lasting impact.

What IMNHC 2026 Leaves Us With

Conferences can produce energy that dissipates quickly. At IMNHC 2026, the conference concluded with explicit accountability, as country delegates left Nairobi with priority plans and parliamentarians made commitments on the record. For NEST360, Nairobi reinforced three convictions we carry into the next phase of our work:

• Mortality change is possible and measurable. The evidence from 65 hospitals across our four countries, with forty percent of facilities achieving significant reductions of 13–50%, tells us what is possible, and the variation tells us where the work remains.
• The systems approach is the approach that scales. Clinical care, biomedical engineering, workforce development, data systems, and community engagement are not separate programs, but are one system. Funding and implementing them in isolation produces isolated results; integrating them produces national change.
• The 2030 deadline is not an abstraction. Four years is not long in health system terms; however, it is enough time to make a difference that will be felt for generations if the commitments made are followed through. That means moving faster than we have before, together, with governments at the helm and full alignment of partners, funders, and implementers behind them.

A Call to Action

The success of IMNHC 2026 will not be measured by the high quality of the conference sessions, but by what happens in hospitals, ministries, budget cycles, and neonatal units across Africa in the months and years ahead. Governments need to fund and work toward meeting their commitments within set timelines.

Funders need to invest in what countries are leading, not what is convenient. And all of us who attended, and those who followed along from across the globe, need to carry the urgency of the conference into every decision we make.

The tools exist to improve newborn care. The evidence is there. Governments are ready. What we need now is the discipline to act because the deadline for newborns across Africa is real.

This is the third post in a three-part series recapping NEST360’s participation at IMNHC 2026.

First: Blog 1 — Moving Forward, Together: What IMNHC 2026 Meant for Newborn Health

Previous: Blog 2 — Moving Forward, Together: Systems Win, Systems Win. Single Interventions Do Not.