Luc Serme A member of the research team surveys a mother in Boulsa, Burkina Faso, about her district's seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaign.Last year on World Malaria Day, Burkina Faso's president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, pledged to eradicate malaria in the country by 2030. While the disease remains one of the country's most serious public health problems, recent research gives hope that the ambitious goal can be achieved.
When the women of Iringa speak about maternal healthcare, the community listens. Their messages to boost women's access to and use of antenatal care services are particularly effective because the women themselves identified the pressing challenges they face. With community support, they also designed strategies to overcome them.
Introduction:
Conflict in South Sudan has displaced 2.3 million people, of whom 789,098 (35%) have taken refuge in Uganda – a country that allows refugees to work, own property, start their own businesses and access public health services. In this context, refugees have identified livelihoods and primary health care as key priorities for their wellbeing.
Why gender matters to young child survival and development
Women's Health and Action Research Centre Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The country's estimated 40,000 maternal deaths annually account for approximately 14% of the global total, according to an African Population and Health Research Center fact sheet. A major reason for these deaths is that many women, particularly in rural areas, don't go to primary health centres for antenatal care, post-natal care, or for giving birth.
Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria
In northern Nigeria, soap-opera-style videos are helping to educate couples about maternal and child health. These videos are just one part of an innovative five-year pilot project aimed at preventing pregnancy complications in a country with one of the highest rates of maternal death in the world.
The Safe Motherhood Research Project studies the implementation and scale-up of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) initiatives in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. This qualitative rapid assessment study was undertaken to explore community perceptions and experiences related to health, health inequality and other MNCH themes.
At first glance, maternal health only seems to focus on women and children. After all, it is maternal health. But women's health during pregnancy and childbirth is also linked to a wide variety of non-biological and non-medical factors. These factors include the value that people and communities place on women's health, access to education and information, and the capacity to make autonomous decisions about, for example, attending prenatal care classes and giving birth in a health facility.
The delivery of new surgical equipment to the General Hospital of Marrere, Mozambique earlier this year was an important step for improving maternal and child health. It was also a milestone in the implementation of a research project led by Universidade Lúrio in Mozambique and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, funded through the Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) initiative. Securing the equipment needed for emergency obstetrical care is just one of the many project interventions underway to reduce maternal and newborn mortality.
Access to information and services for contraception and birth spacing are critical to maternal and child health programming. It is no surprise then, that IDRC is supporting research in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate emerging questions and to propose ways to improve the reproductive health of women and adolescents.
Research shows that creative solutions can overcome barriers to access to health services in fragile contexts. Innovation is also key to identify sustainable ways of improving maternal and child care, even in difficult contexts such as South Sudan, Uganda, and northern Nigeria.
