Harness the power of parents, families, and communities

1. Harness the power of parents, families, and communities Group 3 Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Thailand

2. Vision and Goal Vision: A world in which childbirth is celebrated and every mother and newborn survives and thrives Goal: Option 1: Achieve universal quality coverage of essential interventions for maternal and newborn health

3. The concept of community ownership is key. Include this concept in the introductory paragraph. • Why single out parents out of families? • The “family” is missing in the explanation • Action 1: • Add community health volunteers and community leaders among local champions • Include community groups as well as parent groups • Include “newborn” in MCH • Action 2: • Expand this action to include other strategies in addition to financial ones such as social mobilization, savings credit scheme, cooperatives. The examples are all government-led programs and not community-owned. • The word “sanction” has a negative connotation in some places.

4. Action 3: • Include language to change social norms: promote zero tolerance for newborn death • Promote optimal practices at facility and home • Equip the community with new technologies, e.g., mobile phone, and other innovations. • Link with women’s empowerment and literacy programs as part of community empowerment • Action 4: • This action is too limited; it needs to include empowering the community to raise their voice, ensuring accountability of service providers to provide quality services, creating an enabling environment, and strengthening the link between the community and the health facility. • Action 5: (add a new action) • Mobilize community networks for optimum local resource delivery and utilization