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Acting on the Call Bulletin
Updates on USAID’s Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival Commitments
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 Credit: Syane Luntungan, Jhpiego
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High Quality Care is Safe, Effective, Timely, Respectful, and Equitable
 Enhancing the quality of healthcare is a cornerstone of USAID’s approach to improving measurable health outcomes for women and children. Our investments enable health providers to deliver care in a manner that complies with established clinical standards and promotes dignity and respect for all.
Across our programs, and in collaboration with partners, USAID supports access to high-quality, respectful health care for pregnant women and newborns before, during, and after childbirth by strengthening health systems and building the capacity of health workers.
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The “Acting on the Call Bulletin” is a quarterly newsletter from USAID focused on elevating how we are delivering on our commitment to prevent child and maternal deaths. To ensure you receive future editions, please join our email listserv.
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Special Announcements
2021 brought exciting changes to USAID with new leadership and renewed partnerships and commitments.
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 Credit: Karen Kasmauski, USAID Maternal and Child Survival Program
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This platform marks a major milestone in our website improvement initiative and will enable visitors to explore and learn more about how USAID supports mothers, children, and their families to survive and thrive.
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Stay Tuned for the 2021 Acting on the Call Report in November
The 2021 Acting on the Call Report: Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths will be launched this coming November! More information on how to engage will be coming soon. In the meantime, check out last year’s issue and resources at https://www.usaid.gov/ActingOnTheCall.
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Featured Resources
Featured resources highlight new tools, data, reports, and webinars that we hope will be helpful and informative in your work to support maternal and child survival!
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Disruptions to essential MNCH services during the pandemic have demonstrated the critical importance of strong and resilient health systems for routine care. USAID, in partnership with UNICEF and the International Pediatric Association, developed a technical brief to summarize current evidence and guidance for maintaining safe and effective MNCH care and robust infection prevention and control measures.
Together with our partners, USAID’s maternal and child health and nutrition programs focus on achieving a common vision: A world where healthy and well-nourished women, newborns, and children have the same chance of survival, regardless of where they are born. Read our fact sheet to learn more about how USAID is advancing a healthier, safer, and more prosperous world for women, children, and families.
For more than 40 years, USAID has promoted breastfeeding to save lives, prevent malnutrition, and enhance the long-term health and prosperity of women and children. Check out our new fact sheet that highlights the importance of breastfeeding and how USAID supports breastfeeding in countries around the world.
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Success Stories
Despite the unique challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the global health community, it has also sparked innovative solutions to ensure the delivery of essential health care for mom and baby.
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 Credit: Emmanuel Attramah, Jhpiego; Kobbie Blay, CHAG
Regular prenatal care throughout a pregnancy helps identify potential concerns early and reduces the risk of pregnancy and birth complications. USAID supports high-quality, respectful care and infection and prevention protocols at health facilities to help build community trust in health systems and ensure pregnant women can access essential care.
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 Credit: Karen Kasmauski, USAID Maternal and Child Survival Program
Recognizing that achieving optimal breastfeeding practices requires broad-based support, USAID promotes breastfeeding as a collective responsibility—one that families, communities, health systems, governments, and development partners must champion together.
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 Credit: JM Media Avenue, USAID
Understanding that menstrual health and hygiene is key to achieving gender equity, USAID is designing and implementing projects to enable women to better manage their menstrual cycles in the workplace.
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 Credit: Sékou Toure, USAID GHSC-PSM
Public health systems in many countries face the challenge of ensuring medicines and supplies required are adequately available, especially for childbirth and newborn care. By increasing availability of certain health commodities to address leading causes of maternal and child mortality, health programs can save mothers’ and children’s lives.
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Engage with Us
Follow Us on Social Media!
Follow @USAIDGH on Twitter and Facebook for upcoming success stories and awareness events commemorating international days. All throughout 2021, watch for special content related to USAID’s work and impact over the past six decades, in honor of our 60th anniversary!
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What We’re Reading
Given the unthinkable hardships facing health workers around the world, we are reading about inspiring individuals that are working to save the lives of women and children.
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 Credit: Carielle Doe, USAID
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About 15% of women develop a potentially life-threatening complication during pregnancy or childbirth, and some will require a major surgical intervention to survive. Few of these complications can be predicted, but almost all can be addressed through quality and timely care—including surgical interventions such as cesarean section.
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 Credit: Fernando Fidélis, USAID Maternal and Child Survival Program
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The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) provides the first comprehensive view of children’s exposure and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services.
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 Credit: GHSC-PSM, Youssof Bah
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The Malian Ministry of Health has committed to keeping its moms and babies safe by recently earmarking funds—for the first time—to procure and distribute three lifesaving maternal, newborn and child health commodities: oxytocin, magnesium sulfate, and chlorhexidine.
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