Browsing by Author "Cocoman, Olive"

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    Born too soon: progress and priorities for respectful and rights-based preterm birth care
    (Springer Nature, 2025) Kinney, Mary; Ateva, Elena; Cocoman, Olive
    Progress: Human rights related to preterm birth encompass access to respectful, evidence-based care; informed consent; protection from discrimination, detention, and unnecessary separation of mother and newborn; and broader social entitlements, such as parental leave and early disability support. Since the 2012 Born Too Soon report, global recognition of these rights has expanded through international treaties, global guidelines, national legal reforms, and social movements. Demand for respectful care, including respectful maternity care and family centred care, has led to its incorporation into global guidelines and policies and a greater evidence-base. However, persistent challenges, such as workforce shortages, discriminatory policies, and the erosion of sexual and reproductive rights, continue to threaten progress. Programmatic Priorities: Ensuring respectful and rights-based preterm birth care requires coordinated action across the continuum of care and across sectors, with the mother–baby dyad at the centre. Programmatic priorities at the individual level include implementing respectful maternity care and family-centred care. Ensuring high-quality, respectful care demands that providers themselves are supported, protected, and empowered to deliver such care. Their well-being is a critical enabler of the rights of patients and an essential component of effective, compassionate service delivery. At the facility-level, health systems must be purposefully designed to safeguard the fundamental human rights of the individuals with them, both care seekers and care providers. Implementing respectful, rights-based care relating to preterm birth requires structural and social changes, as well as robust data systems for accountability. Multi-stakeholder action requires strengthening accountability mechanisms at all levels and partnering with those affected by preterm birth—particularly women, families and healthcare providers—in policy processes, and the design, implementation and monitoring of care.
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    Institutionalising community participation in decision-making in maternal and newborn health services in low-and middle-income countries: an analysis from 102 national health ministries
    (Public Library of Science, 2025) Jackson, Debra; Cocoman, Olive; Ruysen, Harriet
    In 2024, 194 countries endorsed World Health Assembly Resolution (WHA77.2) to strengthen participation in health-related decision-making. Achieving this requires strong leadership to institutionalise community participation by embedding it into health system functions. However, efforts are often fragmented and short-term, hindering both sustainability and scalability. There is limited understanding of how well countries have institutionalised community participation in decision-making for quality maternal and newborn health services. A secondary analysis of maternal and newborn health survey data was conducted using responses from 102 Ministries of Health in low-and middle-income countries. The analysis assessed progress in adopting and implementing maternal and newborn health recommendations on community participation. A descriptive approach was used to summarise the frequency of reported community participation activities. Percentages were applied to describe the data, which was disaggregated by 2024–2025 World Bank classifications for income level, and fragile and conflict-affected settings. Country responses were categorised using Lasswell’s Policy Cycle heuristic. The findings indicate substantial gaps in institutionalising community participation in maternal and newborn health. Only half of countries reported integrating participation into national plans, and just one-third into implementation. In 90% of countries, parent groups were reported to be either absent or lacking influence on policymaking. National research on community participation, essential for evidence-based decision-making, was rarely reported. Across all regions, countries had varied progress, reflecting a diverse and uneven landscape of community participation. Stronger efforts are required to institutionalise community participation across the maternal and newborn health policy cycle. Strengthening this integration will require clear metrics to track implementation, enabling more accurate assessments of progress and accountability. Identifying countries where institutionalisation is advancing can surface positive deviance cases. Studying these in-depth may reveal drivers and effective strategies for fostering community participation to guide the adaption and integration of successful approaches into national health systems.