Posted on October 11, 2002

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University of Aberdeen Receives $27.5 Million to Launch Maternal Health Initiative

The University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland, has received $27.5 million from an alliance of twelve major international agencies and foundations to coordinate a new research program aimed at reducing maternal mortality and severe morbidity and improving maternal health and survival in developing countries.

Coordinated by the university's Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health, the Initiative for Maternal Mortality Programme Assessment will collaborate with governments, international agencies, and acedmic institutions to conduct research alongside new and existing safe motherhood strategies. The seven-year effort will address the high risk of dying of pregnancy-related causes in the poorest developing countries, where the lifetime risk of maternal death is as high as one in ten, compared to one in 8,000 in northern Europe.

"The University of Aberdeen has a long and outstanding history of research to improve the health of women and children, stretching back over 200 years," said university vice chancellor C. Duncan Rice. "Today in this new century, we are proud and privileged to be the coordinating center for this ambitious initiative that will make a global contribution to well-being."

The alliance formed to support the project includes the European Commission, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the United Nations Population Fund, the United States Agency for International Development, the Wellcome Trust, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition to technical and political support, the initiative is expected to receive nearly $40 million over four years from the alliance.

“University of Aberdeen to Announce a Major International Research Programme to Help Reduce Maternal Mortality in the Developing World.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release 10/10/02.

Primary Subject: Health
Secondary Subject(s): Women, International Affairs/Development
Location(s): International

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