About Community Based Newborn Care

Community Based Newborn Care (CBNC) in Ethiopia is a national programme that aims to improve newborn survival through the Health Extension Programme (HEP). Phase 1 of CBNC implementation was officially launched in Ethiopia in March 2013 and field staff training was completed in August 2014.

About the evaluation

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been commissioned by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to lead the Phase 1 evaluation, through the IDEAS project. The objective of the CBNC Phase 1 evaluation is to gather, analyse and synthesise evidence to determine whether and how community based newborn care in four regions of Ethiopia leads to increased coverage of critical interventions along the continuum of care. The evaluation design of Phase 1 includes before-and after coverage surveys of the critical maternal and newborn health interventions in intervention and comparison areas. CBNC Phase 1 evaluation also includes a midline survey to examine supply-side factors at PHCU level; qualitative work to understand implementation processes; and tracking of contextual factors.

This report covers the baseline, or “before”, coverage survey methods, results and conclusions.