Dear en-net users,

We are alerting you to a strategic review that is being conducted by the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health of the World Health Organization, to seek your urgent inputs. Marko Kerac, LSHTM is coordinating the inputs for the nutrition component. The deadline is Wednesday April 27 5pm EST.

The strategic review will take stock of child health programming in the past two decades, with specific attention to integrated management of childhood illness as a key global strategy promoted by WHO and UNICEF to address major childhood conditions. The aim is to learn from the past and inform the future in terms of guidelines, protocols, delivery approaches and program management in order to increase access, use and coverage of effective case management of sick children.

The objectives of the review cover a comprehensive assessment of clinical guidelines, including Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM), and the Pocketbook of Hospital Care for Children.

The strategic review involves a scoping to assess the rapid, high-level assessment of diagnostic and treatment guidelines used at hospitals, in frontline health facilities, and by community health workers. It is looking to understand:

1. If there are any new diagnostic devices, management algorithms, or treatments that are ready for integration into a revised set of clinical guidelines and for implementation at scale, for any of the five major childhood conditions:
a. newborn illnesses
b. pneumonia
c. diarrhea
d. malaria
e. severe malnutrition

2. Information on promising innovations that are not yet ready for implementation, although the priority is to identify innovations that can be readily implemented and have supporting evidence.

There is a short survey to complete at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WHOIMCI The deadline is Wednesday April 27 5pm EST.

Please note that when you access the survey, you will also be able to provide recommendations or comments for other disease areas where you have experience. There may be follow up for clarifications/further information based on your responses. Contributors to this review will be duly acknowledged.

This is a great opportunity to jointly impact the conclusions of the WHO strategic review that will have important implications for how global child health programming will evolve in the next decade. Please share with your colleagues.

For any clarifications or to share further information beyond the survey, please contact: Marko Kerac, marko.kerac[AT]lshtm.ac.uk