.png?sfvrsn=6d0e27cd_1 "Partnership for Change - v7 (1)")
Approximately one-fifth of the world's population of women and children are living in countries experiencing armed conflict, and of the 20 countries with the highest neonatal mortality rates, 19 are in conflict. Indirect effects of conflict (due to the destruction of shelter, food and water supplies, health care and other essentials of life) are also markedly larger than the direct effects of conflict (injury and/or death due to physical violence during conflict), and more pronounced among women, newborns, children, and adolescents. In conflict-affected contexts, with high levels of insecurity, population movement, disruptions in supply chains, and exacerbations of pre-existing shortages of human and financial resources, it is especially difficult to deliver (health) services to these affected populations.
There is a clear and urgent need to address the impact of conflict on WCH. Spanning across a number of geographies and informed by insights from a range of humanitarian health actors and civil society organizations active in conflict settings, the BRANCH Consortium's (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women & Children) research confirms this need and emphasizes that that much still needs to be done by a range of actors to fill research and guidance gaps, to improve national, regional and international response coordination, and to ultimately improve WCH in conflict settings. This need is all the more pronounced as COVID-19 continues to compromise the tenuous gains that have been made for women, newborns, children and adolescents, as outlined in the PMNCH COVID-19 Call to Action.
This regional workshop, co-organised by the BRANCH Consortium, Agha Khan University and PMNCH will pull from findings from BRANCH research and build on relevant aspects of the PMNCH COVID-19 Call to Action. The intent of the workshops will be to disseminate key findings of this recent research, discuss outstanding national and regional evidence needs, and build relationships among partners from various constituencies in these countries to further a action-oriented research and evidence-based policy and advocacy agenda to improve WCH in conflict settings.