Partners

The Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program (AMDD), Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Since 1999, AMDD has worked to make safe motherhood a reality for women in developing countries. AMDD has worked in partnership with UN agencies, NGOs and governments in more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to expand the availability, quality and utilization of emergency obstetric care (EmOC). Recognizing that major reduction in maternal deaths requires the strengthening of health systems, AMDD has recently intensified its focus on factors that can facilitate equitable access to lifesaving care, such as the optimal use of mid-level health workers. Website

The Centre for Global Health (CGH), Trinity College Dublin endeavours to strengthen health systems through its multidisciplinary and multi-country approach to critical analysis, research-in-action and capacity building. Aiming to develop a better understanding of the critical factors influencing human resource capacity, CGH is implementing a project, Maximizing Human Resource Capacity in Rural District Health Systems in Lesotho and Malawi identifying the constraints to human resources planning and management, and the key factors influencing staff retention in order to develop more effective strategies. Trinity College is also currently conducting research to improve knowledge for policy making on the recruitment, motivation and retention of health workers in developing countries through an understanding of incentives and aspirations and a variety of other research and teaching projects based in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. Website

Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative was founded in 2002 by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Realizing Rights' mission is to put human rights standards and principles of equity, accountability, participation, and attention to the most vulnerable at the heart of global governance and policy-making to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed on the global stage. Realizing Rights promotes constructive dialogue and new action to address key global challenges, focusing especially on the rights of people in Africa. Realizing Rights' Health Program focuses on strengthening political leadership to promote the right to health and serving as a bridge between the highest levels of global discourse and policy-making and the needs of the poorest. Website

The Regional Prevention of Maternal Mortality Network (RPMM) started in West Africa in 1988, and since 1997 the Network, headquartered in Ghana, has expanded from 3 to 20 African countries, with each technical team averaging 20 multidisciplinary professionals from community physicians, nurse-midwives, obstetricians, paediatricians, anaesthetists to social scientists, journalists and rights activists. RPMM teams are able to work right at the heart of health systems and communities to provide essential technical assistance and promote sustainable, effective interventions to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The unique construction of the Network allows them to simultaneously build local capacity to conduct multi-disciplinary research and act as forceful advocates for the adoption and implementation of policies that effectively address maternal and neonatal mortality. In 2003 RPMM won the Global Health Council's global health award for best practices. Website

The Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) is part of the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi in Blantyre, the only college producing medical doctors in Malawi. The Centre is the reproductive health and training arm of the Community Health Department of the College and seeks to improve reproductive health service provision and utilization. CRH's mission is to serve as a centre of excellence for capacity building in reproductive health research, training and networking for scaling up the national reproductive health program. The Centre fulfils these functions through the provision of operational research evaluating reproductive health services and establishing a model of comprehensive care; postgraduate, pre-service and in-service training in reproductive health; and by acting as a knowledge base and network hub to collate, synthesise and review research results for the country. Website

Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique

The Ifakara Health Institute is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and works to improve health delivery systems and generate of evidence for health planning and management. Research is directed toward development ends which maximize population health gains. The Ifakara Institute aims to be a centre of excellence in health research and development; the mission is to develop and sustain district based health research and resource centre capable of generating new knowledge and relevant information for public health policy and actions. Website