About the Authors

Donela Besada

Affiliation Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

Kate Kerber

Affiliation Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, Cape Town, South Africa

Natalie Leon

Affiliation Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

David Sanders

Affiliations School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, Cape Town, South Africa, School of Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa

Emmanuelle Daviaud

Affiliation Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

Sarah Rohde

Affiliation Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

Jon Rohde

Affiliation Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

Wim van Damme

Affiliations School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, Cape Town, South Africa, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Sint-Rochusstraat 2, 2000, Antwerpen, Belgium

Mary Kinney

Affiliation Saving Newborn Lives/Save the Children, Cape Town, South Africa

Samuel Manda

Affiliations Biostatistics Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, 1 Soutpansberg Road, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Kwazulu-Natal, King George V Ave, Glenwood, Durban, 4041, South Africa

Nicholas P Oliphant

Affiliation UNICEF Head office 125 Maiden Lane, 11th Floor, New York, NY, 10038, United States of America

Fatima Hachimou

Affiliation UNICEF Niger, 2, rue des Oasis - Quartier Ancien Plateau, Niamey, Niger

Adama Ouedraogo

Affiliation UNICEF Benin, 01 BP 2289 Cotonou Boulevard de la CEN-SAD, Cotonou, Benin

Asma Yaroh Ghali

Affiliation Ministry of Health, BP 613, Niamey, Niger

Tanya Doherty

tanya.doherty@mrc.ac.za

Affiliations Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa, School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, Cape Town, South Africa

Competing Interests

Dr Fatima Hachimou, Dr Adama Ouedraogo and Mr Nicholas Oliphant are employed by UNICEF. The findings and conclusions in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNICEF. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DB KK DS ED JR SR MK NL TD. Performed the experiments: DB DS ED KK NL SM. Analyzed the data: DB KK SM SR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KK SM. Wrote the paper: DB KK NL DS ED SR JR WvD MK SM NPO FH AO AYG TD.