Scaling Up SUSTAIN (Survive and Thrive Action Interventions) – a social innovation to tailor interventions for improved neonatal health and survival in northern Ethiopia

Current global health goals will only be achieved through better health systems, which will rely on government and societal efforts.

The SUSTAIN project aligns with the UN´s global strategy for women´s and children´s health by improving neonatal survival in Ethiopia through the implementation of locally driven and adapted, evidence-based interventions.

Evidence shows that engagement between the communities and the health facilities improves maternal and neonatal health outcomes, an approach, which WHO also recommends.

However, studies still need to demonstrate the scalability of this approach and its ability to be integrated into the primary healthcare system.

Despite efforts to improve primary healthcare services, high neonatal mortality persists in low-income countries due to low utilization and quality problems.

The SUSTAIN project will undertake a cluster-randomized trial, followed by scale-up within the project period to study the implementation, cost, and impact of a social innovation aimed to engage local communities and health facilities to identify and address maternal and newborn health challenges and health system obstacles.

SUSTAIN involves over 1000 local stakeholders and will study its effect on almost 100,000 births, evaluating its cost-effectiveness, feasibility, scalability, and impact on key indicators of neonatal survival.

Following rigorous evaluations, the project will develop an implementation framework for scale-up and transferability to other settings.