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Two decades of evidence, accountability, and country leadership — and what comes next for health data in a changing global landscape.
Countdown to 2030 is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative launched in response to the 2003 Lancet Child Survival Series, with a mandate to track progress, strengthen accountability, and translate evidence into action for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health. Since its first global report in 2005, Countdown has played a central role in shaping how RMNCAH progress is measured, communicated, and used globally. Over the past two decades, the initiative has:
- Developed globally recognized country dashboards and equity profiles.
- Advanced methodological innovations in effective coverage, equity analysis, geospatial modelling, and health systems performance.
- Produced a large body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence.
- Built sustained partnerships across governments, UN agencies, academia, and development partners.
- Supported the emergence of country-led analytical capacity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, with leadership by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).
Countdown’s 20-year trajectory represents a major collective achievement in global health monitoring and accountability. It helped embed equity, effective coverage, and independent analysis into the DNA of global health decision-making, particularly during the MDG era and the early years of the SDGs.
However, Countdown reaches its 20th anniversary at a moment of profound transformation — and uncertainty — in the global health data landscape. Large-scale household surveys, particularly the DHS program, face structural disruptions and funding constraints. At the same time, national and sub-national decision-makers increasingly demand timely, granular, and real-time analytics; Integration between survey and routine data systems (DHIS2, CRVS, EMR); greater data sovereignty, institutional ownership, and sustainability; stronger national analytical capacity and data-use culture; and new forms of automation, and AI-driven analytics.
Meanwhile, the broader global context is marked by weakening commitment to multilateral coordination, increasing politicization of data and narratives, rising dependence on proprietary and black-box analytical systems, and growing threats to independent monitoring and accountability.
In this context, Countdown is no longer only a global monitoring initiative producing reports and dashboards. It has evolved into a strategic data system actor and catalyst, supporting countries to navigate the transition from fragmented, donor-driven data architectures toward integrated, sustainable, and country-led health data ecosystems that can provide the information countries need for decision making around women’s, children’s, and adolescent’s health.
This webinar goes beyond a commemoration. It uses Countdown’s 20-year legacy as a springboard for a forward-looking, system-level conversation on:
- Why independent data and accountability still matter,
- How Countdown remains relevant in a rapidly changing data and financial ecosystem,
- And what role it can play in shaping the future of health data systems and accountability in LMICs.
Objectives
To reflect on 20 years of Countdown’s contribution to global accountability and to reposition the initiative as a key actor shaping the future of health data systems, analytical capacity, and independent monitoring in low- and middle-income countries. Specifically, the webinar aims to:
- Acknowledge and celebrate the major scientific and institutional milestones of Countdown since 2005.
- Demonstrate how Countdown has evolved from a global monitoring initiative into a system-level data actor and catalyst.
- Situate Countdown within current debates on the future of population-based and routine data systems (post-DHS era, AI, automation).
- Reaffirm the importance of independent analysis, equity, and partnerships in a changing global health architecture for driving action and accountability.
- Articulate Countdown’s forward-looking role in supporting integrated, country-led, and resilient health data ecosystems through 2030 and beyond.
Agenda
Time (GMT) | Session | Key Points | Speakers / Leads |
13:00 – 13:05 | Opening Framing | Context, objectives, and why this moment matters | Cheikh Faye, APHRC |
13:05 – 13:25 | Countdown’s Legacy: 20 Years of Global and Country Accountability | What are the key contributions of the Countdown to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health? | Cesar Victora, FedU Pelotas Joy Lawn, LSHTM Ties Boerma, U Manitoba |
13:25 – 13:35 | Special Address | Independent accountability for women, children’s and adolescents’ health: progress and challenges | Richard Horton, The Lancet |
13:35 – 14:25 | Countdown as a Data System Actor and Catalyst | How is Countdown contributing to strengthening country accountability and action for RMCNAH and nutrition and what more can be done? | (moderator Bob Black – 5 min each) -Amadou Doucoure, Ministry of Health, Senegal -Helga Fogstedt, UNICEF -Luc Laviolette, GFF/WB -Zulfi Bhutta, AKU -Rajat Khosla, PMNCH -Catherine Kyobutungi, APHRC - TBD, WHO AFRO -Representative, Gates Foundation |
14:25 – 14:30 | Call to Action – Countdown 2026–2030 | What does Countdown commit to deliver for countries between 2026–2030? | Cheikh Faye |