Factors in health initiative success: Learning from Nepal’s newborn survival initiative

What determines the success of health initiatives in acquiring sufficient levels of political priority to alleviate significant health problems in low-income countries? We investigate this question in the context of significantly increasing political priority for newborn survival in Nepal since the turn of the century. We use a process-tracing methodology to investigate the causes of this shift, drawing on twentynine interviews with individuals close to newborn health policymaking in Nepal and extensive document analysis