By Elisabeth Piper, Global Child Health Policy Assistant, American Academy of Pediatrics
Attendees experience hands-on training at a Helping Babies Survive program.
For over 92 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been striving to attain optimal physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The period of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the Academy to find new ways to engage with partners in 28 countries around the world to meet the needs of children. With the expertise of 67,000 pediatrician members, we advocate for global child health funding at the federal level and support policies and interventions that are country-adapted at the global level.
The AAP’s global programs span a diverse set of child health needs and priorities. The Academy’s Helping Babies Survive initiative is a suite of evidence-based, hands-on training programs created to reduce neonatal mortality in resource-limited environments and has been implemented in more than 80 countries with 850,000 trainees. The AAP also implements essential pediatric first aid and emergency care trainings for providers in 23 countries to date and distributes project grants throughout the world to strengthen community health systems for child health.
Through partnerships with the WHO, CDC, and other global health organizations, the AAP has been able to expand its various programs and initiatives, including a new digital training solution course on essential newborn care. “ENC Now!” provides a blended learning approach, with digitally delivered content as well as face-to-face practice, to ensure safe and effective capacity-building opportunities for health care workers on essential newborn care.
The AAP’s immunization work focuses on improving provider skills in discussing vaccine hesitancy with families. Our work is built off the existing evidence that child health providers are the most trusted and effective source of vaccine information. At the federal advocacy level, the AAP continues to push for equitable access to vaccines as a crucial advocacy priority for global child health. In addition to ensuring equitable vaccine access, the Academy advocates with the U.S. federal government to implement early childhood development programs, end violence against children globally, and improve maternal and child health outcomes.
To learn more about the American Academy of Pediatrics and its work globally, please click here.
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