Health systems interventions for meeting SDG targets on neonatal mortality in India: rapid evidence synthesis

India has made substantial progress in the last few decades in improving child health. While overall child mortality has decreased, the proportion of deaths in neonates as a component of child deaths has increased. It has been predicted that if current trends continue, India will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR). To reach the target, more effective way of delivering quality preventive and curative care need to be identified and monitored. 

With the above context, this request was received from the National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC). The requester communicated that the Union Ministry of Health was in the process of streamlining the National Health Mission (NHM) and this rapid review was requested to offer evidence on interventions to reduce Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) in India from an LMIC perspective. In consultation with the requester, the RES team decided that the focus of the review should be on health systems interventions to reduce NMR. This RES was produced in a span of a month and a RES technical report was submitted to the requester.  

The Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) review group’s definitions of health systems interventions involving changes in healthcare delivery, financing, governance and/or implementation were adopted. Interventions from included systematic reviews were around mobile health communications, community-based programmes of newborn care, home-based antepartum and postnatal care, role expansion and task shifting, training on essential newborn care in community and facility setting, etc.