Child Health Task Force

The Child Health Task Force (CH TF) — official website located here: www.childhealthtaskforce.org — was comprised of donors, governments and partners at global and country levels working to strengthen equitable and comprehensive child health programs focused on children aged 0 to 18 years of age in line with the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030). MCSP served as the Secretariat of the CH TF, providing the central management function of the group as well as technical guidance.

The CH TF built on the experience of the iCCM Task Force to:

1. Strengthen the community health platform through a primary health care (PHC) approach to deliver a comprehensive package of health promotion, prevention and curative interventions, and support the building of strong linkages for appropriate care from the community to PHC facilities and first level referral hospitals;
2. Support delivery of high-quality case management (Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood illness) at the PHC facility, including community and facility-based management of malnutrition and counselling (Essential Nutrition Actions);
3. Support strengthening of Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment; and
4. Strengthen referral and counter referral from the community to the PHC facility, the first level referral hospitals, and back to the appropriate level.

History

In an effort to support countries to adopt iCCM as part of their efforts to prevent child and maternal deaths, global health advocates and practitioners founded the iCCM Task Force (2009-2017). MCSP served as the Secretariat of the iCCM Task Force and provided technical leadership to the consortium comprised of multilateral and bilateral agencies, academics, nongovernmental organizations, and foundations.

With the expanded mandate of the CH TF, additional areas of importance to successful child health programming were identified. These areas constituted the subgroups under the new Task Force:

1. Costing and Finance for Child Health Programs
2. Institutionalizing iCCM
3. Nutrition and Child Health
4. Implementation Science
5. Monitoring and Evaluation
6. Expansion of the Child Health Package
7. Child Health in Emergencies and Humanitarian Settings
8. Private Sector Involvement in Child Health Care Delivery
9. Innovations and Digital Health

For more information on the Child Health Task Force, click here.