With less than 10 years remaining to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is an urgent need for collective action to meet maternal and newborn health and stillbirth prevention targets.

To bring us closer to meeting the SDG targets, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID created AlignMNH, a knowledge sharing and convening platform that aims to rapidly share science, evidence, and experience across maternal and newborn health communities. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership works directly with AlignMNH to provide technical and capacity development assistance and focused country support.

The Opening Forum of the AlignMNH Collective took place on Tuesday, April 20, and Wednesday, April 21, 2021. The two-day solutions-focused forum featured data-driven discussions on country challenges, solutions, and progress; the effect of COVID-19 on services for mothers and newborns with a lens on evidence, health system resilience, policymaking, and equity; improving quality of care for women and newborns; the importance of respectful maternal care; the critical need to invest in the health care workforce; and more. The event had more than 2,300 registered attendees, representing over 100 countries, who came together to track progress, share successes, discuss challenges, and accelerate positive change for maternal and newborn health.

Key resources from the event are:

• Report from Countdown to 2030 for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health: Maternal and Newborn Health in Low- and Middle-income Countries: a Brief Assessment of Mortality, Coverage and Policies
• Opening Forum Video: The Road to 2030
• Article in Global Health: Science and Practice: Galvanizing Collective Action to Accelerate Reductions in Maternal and Newborn Mortality and Prevention of Stillbirths
• Article in The Lancet Global Health: Progressing the Investment Case in Maternal and Child Health

The 2nd Forum of the AlignMNH Collective will take place in April 2022. The maternal and newborn health community will also gather at the International Maternal and Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC) from May 8 to 11, 2023.