Improving maternal health globally
A new three-year, $12 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) effort to significantly improve maternal health in developing countries. The project will be led by Ana Langer, professor of the practice of public health and coordinator of the Dean’s Special Initiative on Women and Health at HSPH. Under the grant, HSPH will host the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) — an initiative bringing together major global and country-level maternal health organizations to improve maternal health in developing countries by leading, coordinating, and promoting innovative and effective knowledge management, technical exchanges, and consensus-building activities; strengthening countries’ health care capacity through mentoring and training; and supporting strategic research on critical issues. The MHTF was established in 2008 by EngenderHealth, a leading global reproductive health organization working to improve the quality of family planning, maternal health, and HIV programs in more than 20...