Birth of the Partnership for Accelerating Neonatal Survival Across Africa (PANSAA)

Q&A with PANSAA Co-Leads Dr. Olufunke Bolaji from the African Neonatal Association (ANA) and Prof Joy Lawn from NEST360 and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

New estimates show neonatal deaths have been stuck at 2.3 million every year since 2020, despite most of these deaths being preventable, particularly through small and sick newborn care. Recent funding cuts from across research and international aid also threaten the potential for progress. Fifty-six countries, including most of the 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, are off track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 to reach a neonatal mortality rate of 12 or fewer deaths per 1000 live births by 2030. Though sub-Saharan Africa sits at an average of 27 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births and needs to go about five-times faster to reach the 2030 goal, a powerful new African-led initiative is working to accelerate progress.

Enter PANSAA—the Partnership for Accelerating Neonatal Survival Across Africa—a collaboration between the African Neonatal Association (ANA) and NEST360. With a shared mission to drive down neonatal mortality across Africa, PANSAA aims to combine African-led innovation with powerful data to reshape the future of newborn care, whilst also incubating the next generation of African researchers.

As we mark World Health Day on 7 April and kick off the year-long campaign on healthy beginnings, hopeful futures, we asked PANSAA’s two co-leads, Dr. Olufunke Bolaji, Chair of ANA’s Advocacy and Collaboration Committee, and Professor Joy Lawn of LSHTM and NEST360 to share more about the birth of the PANSAA partnership, where and how this will work across Africa, and what all of us can do to go faster, together.

1. What is PANSAA and where will PANSAA be geographically focused?

PANSAA stands for Partnership for Accelerating Neonatal Survival Across Africa, to bring together two African-led platforms: the African Neonatal Association (ANA) and Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST360).

• NEST360 is an alliance of 23 organizations (17 in Africa), collaborating with governments in neonatal units in Malawi (national scale), Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and in Ethiopia. NEST360 strengthens local health systems sustainably through:1) Innovative devices and health systems change, 2) Education ecosystems and 3) Implementing evidence-based care, based on use of reliable and timely data.
• ANA is a group of over 370 African neonatologists and pediatricians working in neonatal care in 37 African countries. ANA was set up in 2021 and aims to improve knowledge, implementation, and practice of newborn care, mindful of equity, access, ethics, family-centeredness and quality.

PANSAA is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as a global partnership grant from April 2025 for three years. The focus will start across eight countries—Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. These countries collectively account for over 60% of Africa’s 1.1 million neonatal deaths per year.

PANSAA is now the largest partnership focused on newborn care across the continent and will help us go faster together for evidence-based neonatal care and to grow the next generation of researchers.

2. What are the main objectives of PANSAA?

Over the next three years PANSAA will directly impact the neonatal care of a projected 500,000 newborns in eight of Africa’s highest burden countries, with higher quality of care and lower deaths. PANSAA will share data and learning for use across Africa and beyond, especially for improving the quality of kangaroo mother care (KMC) and for preventing and better-detecting neonatal infections. PANSAA will enable the growth of early and mid-career researchers focused on neonatal care across Africa.

3. Can you share specifics about the approach this new partnership will take to rapidly expand evidence-based neonatal care?

PANSAA will leverage the combined strengths of these multi-country, multi-disciplinary partnerships for African-led implementation research and action. Our collective vision is to use local data to answer questions centered on improving neonatal quality of care, transforming neonatal units across the continent and accelerating newborn survival across Africa. Our approach will be operationalized through linked workstreams aimed at accomplishing the following:

• Data analysis and data use to drive change: Large datasets from NEST360 (~140 neonatal units) and ANA (~23 units), will be aligned to enable comparable data for >150,000 newborns per year. Research questions will be co-created with parents, health care professionals, biomedical engineers, laboratory personnel, and linked to priorities set by governments and United Nations partners.
• Implementation research incubators focused on the high priority research topics of kangaroo mother care (KMC) and neonatal infections. Findings emerging from these two research incubators will be used for action locally, published and shared widely. These two research incubator groups will use large multi-hospital datasets to answer questions such as better routine measurement of KMC quality including duration per 24 hours and solutions for increasing duration. Importantly, hospital-acquired infection outbreaks are often missed and a focus of PANSAA will be on more rapid, feasible detection and response. Findings from these research incubators will be used for action locally, and published and shared widely.
• Research skills-building and mentoring: A crucial focus is on growing the next generation of African researchers. In order to continue to accelerate progress for neonatal survival in high burden contexts, we need to empower the next generation of African researchers. PANSAA teams will have access to skills-building opportunities on implementation research, quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as economic evaluation. A set of early career researchers will be selected from ANA and NEST360 in the first year and linked to mentors and embedded in research workstreams, enabling them to undertake research, publish research results, and develop grant applications.
• Sharing of learning: Research findings and tools will be shared widely though the Newborn Toolkit, enabling uptake. The Newborn Toolkit is a web-based community with 1000 tools in 15 languages and in 2024 had >55,000 unique users from 190 countries.

4. What can the MNCH community do to support and follow PANSAA’s progress and help with key efforts to drive down neonatal deaths?

At a time when global funding for newborns has become increasingly limited, collaboration and partnership are essential. We invite you to share your learnings and tools. You can stay informed of PANSAA’s updates, tools and learnings by visiting the newborn toolkit website. Join the Community of Practice and access key resources, such as the new Research Funding Map to facilitate your own research connections. 

Newborns and their families across Africa are facing multiple challenges with climate, conflict, and cuts in funding. We can go faster together for healthy beginnings and more hopeful futures.

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About:

Dr. Olufunke Bolaji is a pediatrician and neonatologist at Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria with 17 years of experience delivering quality health care to newborns, and young children in low- and middle-income countries. She also provides technical expertise in policy and program development for the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria. Dr. Bolaji serves as the Chair of the Advocacy and Collaboration Committee of the ANA. Follow Dr. Bolaji on LinkedIn.

Professor Joy Lawn is a pediatrician and neonatal doctor with 35 years of clinical and research experience, notably in Africa, Her team at LSHTM work on epidemiology, global estimates, trials and implementation and economic research. She facilitates the NEST360 data systems and complex evaluation. She is a champion for health equity and enabling next generation for applied research leadership. Follow on Bluesky and LinkedIn.

The African Neonatal Association is a group of African neonatologists and pediatricians working in neonatal care in Africa with over 300 members in almost every sub-Saharan African country.

NEST360 is an alliance of 23 organizations (17 in Africa) working with five African governments to end preventable newborn deaths in African hospitals.

The Newborn Toolkit is web-based community to go faster together for small and sick newborn care implementation around the world. The site has 1,000 tools in 15 languages and in 2024 had more than 55,000 unique users from 190 countries.