The DIPOMATIC Collaboration is an National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) global health research group, based in the UK, Malawi and Zambia. The aim of DIPLOMATIC is to reduce preterm birth and stillbirth and to optimise outcomes for babies born preterm In Malawi and Zambia. The Collaboration consist of 8 work packages each with objectives: Work Package 2 (WP2) Objectives 1. To collate key contextual information on the existing data infrastructure relating to perinatal health within Malawi and Zambia 2. To undertake an analysis of existing Karonga Health and Demographic Surveillance data to provide detailed information on the epidemiology of stillbirth and neonatal death and underlying causes 3. To agree complementary core datasets on maternity and neonatal care to be captured on all women and babies treated in DIPLOMATIC participating hospitals This report is a working paper, in fulfilment of **aim 1 of WP2**. The purpose of this paper is to provide key contextual information on the existing data infrastructures relating to perinatal health within Malawi, in preparation for agreeing a core data set for the project. . Collating this contextual information is one of the key objectives of work package 2 of this project . The paper provides an overview of existing collection of perinatal outcomes in vital statistics and hospital data sets, but with a specific focus on how this impacts on the design and implementation of a minimum core data set for the DIPLOMATIC collaboration. Whilst the DIPLOMATIC group spans both Zambia and Malawi, this initial work has focused on Malawi. Key collaborators for WP1, and one of the WP2 co-leads are based in Malawi and two of the co-authors of this paper visited Malawi in advance of the DIPLOMATIC launch meeting, allowing them to collate information from local stakeholders. The equivalent information for Zambia will need to be collated, before robust recommendations on designing and implementing the collection of the core DIPLOMATIC data set can be made for Zambia.