Global child health - our impact

Since our foundation, we at RCPCH have embraced a commitment, beyond our work in the UK, to improving child health in the world's poorest countries. We train, mentor and advise on a wide range of medical issues which affect infant and child care services worldwide. Take a look at what we do, watch videos from some of our programmes and download our current and past impact reports.

Over the past 20 years, RCPCH Global has worked with local partners, ministries of health and international development agencies in a wide range of low- and middle-income settings, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Nepal, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

RCPCH Global Update 2024-26

The evolution of our programmes follows a common pattern. Find out about these and more in our 2024-26 update.

You can read our latest report - available to view below or as a download.

What we do

Our work addresses issues affecting the health and development of newborn infants, children and adolescents, including:

  • maternal and child survival
  • critical neonatal and paediatric care
  • integrated management of childhood illnesses
  • multidisciplinary support for physical and psychosocial disability
  • adolescent mental and sexual health.

We focus on improving multidisciplinary clinical care at health facilities, from referral hospitals to primary care centres, using international expertise

We combine course-based training with continuous in-situ mentoring to support doctors, nurses, midwives and other healthworker cadres to improve their practical daily skills in clinical care.

Further information regarding our country specific approaches can be found at the bottom of this page in the downloads section.

Mentorship and essential equipment allow doctors and nurses to save lives in Rwanda

Although Rwanda has made impressive improvements in reducing the number of young child deaths, there are still a high number of newborns who do not survive their first month. With UNICEF Rwanda and the Rwandan Ministry of Health we provide life-saving medical equipment to hospitals in need, as well as trained paediatric doctors and nurses from the UK. These mentors spend time training their Rwandan counterparts, allowing them to save more lives and give better care to babies and mothers.

This video, produced by UNICEF Rwanda, introduces this work and features interviews with the UK and Rwandan health professionals.

Emergency paediatric care programme in Myanmar

Every year, around 46,000 children under 5 years die in Myanmar, many of preventable causes. In this film, we introduce this care programme comprising training, implementation and practice.