London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

To address this, MRCG at LSHTM convened a one-day National Policy Engagement Meeting on Stillbirth in The Gambia on Wednesday, 6 May 2026, at the Ocean Bay Hotel. Organised by Dr Uduak Okomo, Clinical Assistant Professor at MRCG at LSHTM and Coordinator of Maternal and Newborn Health Research, in collaboration with the On Tackling In-transit Delays for Mothers in Emergency Consortium at LSHTM, Google, and the Gambian Ministry of Health, the meeting brought together policymakers, health system implementers, researchers, development partners, and health professionals to discuss evidence-based strategies to reduce stillbirths and improve newborn survival nationwide.

The meeting provided a platform for national stakeholders to consider evidence from the largest nationwide facility-based stillbirth audit conducted in The Gambia, led by Dr Okomo, and to identify priorities for stillbirth prevention, health system strengthening, and policy action.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Nathan Nsubuga Bakyaita, WHO Country Representative to The Gambia emphasised the value of facility-based data. “Facility data is accessible, actionable, and critical for decision-making. Stronger collaboration between research and policy is key to improving maternal and newborn outcomes,” he noted. 

The discussions also examined gaps in quality of care, referral systems, emergency obstetric and newborn care coverage, and intrapartum care services. 

Dr. Momodou T. Nyassi, Director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, described stillbirth as a silent tragedy that demands urgent attention “We must count every stillbirth, strengthen our systems, and ensure evidence guides our actions. Strong partnerships, particularly with the MRCG at LSHTM and other stakeholders, are providing the data we need to understand where we are and guide the actions required,” he said. 

Participants were also introduced to new geospatial analyses and tools designed to map inequalities in access to emergency obstetric and newborn care.  

Dr Aduragbemi Banke-Thomas, Associate Professor of Maternal and Newborn Health, Co-Director of the MARCH Centre LSHTM, and Principal Investigator of the On Tackling In-transit Delays for Mothers in Emergency (OnTIME) Gambia, said, “I am grateful that we had the opportunity to be able to share this cutting-edge evidence with the government of The Gambia. My team and I, in partnership with Google, are committed to supporting the government in every way possible to ensure that no pregnant woman and baby in The Gambia is left behind in access to crucial emergency obstetric and newborn care needed for their survival and wellbeing.” 

At the meeting, the partners jointly launched a Google dashboard, developed by Google in collaboration with stakeholders, to map women’s access to their closest Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) facilities across The Gambia. These tools highlight travel-time barriers and community-level disparities linked to stillbirth outcomes, offering critical insights for policy and planning. 

The meeting is expected to inform the development of a national policy brief and strengthen The Gambia’s maternal and newborn health agenda, including discussions around adopting a national stillbirth reduction target aligned with global goals.