Maternal and Newborn Standards and Indicators Compendium

The Maternal and Newborn Standards and Indicators Compendium is designed to assist program designers working for international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) develop high quality programs focused on women and children. It is the result of a three-year collaborative effort led by the Safe Motherhood/Reproductive Health (SMRH) Working Group, CORE Group. The CORE Group is a membership organization of international NGOs registered in the United States that promotes and improves the health and well being of women and children and the communities in which they live, through collaborative NGO action and learning.

The purpose of the Maternal and Newborn Standards and Indicators Compendium is to assist program designers to select the essential components and actions for their chosen interventions (from the “Standards of Care and Recommended Practices” columns in the tables) and to select appropriate indicators (from the “Indicators” columns in the tables).

The Compendium may also be helpful to those who need to know the standards of care to assess program effectiveness through monitoring and evaluation, and for those who create protocols and tools (such as job aids and checklists) for service delivery. In addition, the Compendium may assist policy makers to know what standards of care and recommended practices to include when drafting policy documents.