GROUP CARE FOR THE FIRST 1000 DAYS (GC_1000): If it takes a village to raise a child, group care is the first step

2026-07-22

This project focusses on in-depth understanding and a systematic development of acceptable, feasible and sustainable strategies to integrate group care into health systems for antenatal and postnatal care during the first 1000 days. Group care is evidence-based, transforms the delivery of maternal, newborn and child health care and reduces inequities in services utilization, improves the quality of services, and makes a significant positive impact on the health and wellbeing of mothers, families and children. No evidence-based guidelines exist for health systems to establish and sustain this transformative model. Care in a group changes the user(s)-provider experience, encourages self-care, is empowering and enables end-users to learn to increase healthy behaviours for themselves and for their children. It breaks the vicious circle of poor quality and inadequate utilization of services by offering comprehensive antenatal and postnatal care that meets the needs of the end users, care providers and health systems by combining quality clinical care with health promotion and health information activities. GC_1000, demonstration sites in 4 low- and middle-income countries, as well as in 3 high-income countries in settings that serve the most vulnerable women and girls, will deliver group antenatal and postnatal care throughout the project. Specifically, GC_1000 will: 1. Implement group antenatal and postnatal care in selected demonstration sites in collaborative ways that set the groundwork for sustained service delivery and possibilities for scaling- up; 2. Analyze within country data that emerge from the implementation process to create country-specific blueprints for scale-up; 3. Use cross-country synthesis to develop a global implementation strategy toolbox for the adaptation, implementation and scale up of facilitated group care within the first 1000 days, particularly to reach the most vulnerable groups of women and girls globally.

Netherlands, Belgium, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Kosovo *, Suriname, Ghana

2026-02-01