This study aimed to document the key messages, dissemination activities and impacts of selected projects within the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health strategy portfolio, and consider how these might contribute toward the learning agenda for the strategy.

Purpose of dissemination: All projects used dissemination to achieve a range ofpurposes, from awareness-raising through to policy change, often in conjunctionwith advocacy work.

Audiences: Projects segmented their audience geographically and by type, anddifferentiated dissemination activities throughout the project lifecycle.

Key stakeholders: Projects had a sophisticated understanding of the key playersand partnerships in their operational context. They invested heavily inrelationship-building and addressing stakeholder interests.

Messages: The key messages that projects aimed to communicate fell broadly intothree categories:

1. Improvements in health outcomes

2. Improvements in care-giving or care-seeking behaviours for maternal andnewborn health

3. Improved processes needed to enable better health outcomes.

Types of impact: Project impact was primarily research-related or in the areas ofhealth service and policy. We define impact as an effect that can be attributed infull or part to the activities of a project.

Documenting impact: Few projects docmented the impact of their dissemination work.

Ways in which impacts are realised: Project data was used to inform policy and practice; innovations were adopted and adapted by others; additional funding was secured for scale-up; project tools were adopted by others; project staff were asked to give advice or to conduct further research.

Working with the foundation: Projects’ primary contact with the foundation wasthe Program Officer, but field visits by foundation staff and visits by projects to thefoundation were seen be very valuable.