Save the Mothers Initiative
The Save The Mothers Initiative was a FIGO project established in 1997 to expand its activities in the area of safe motherhood. The aim was to mobilise the obstetric and gynecological community in developed and developing countries to work in partnership to demonstrate the most cost-effective way to save mothers’ lives.
Financial support for the Initiative was provided in part by UNFPA, Pharmacia Corporation and The World Bank and from FIGO's own resources.
In Phase I five needs assessment missions were undertaken by teams of representatives from a developed country and local experts, in Central America (with representatives from the USA), Ethiopia (involving representatives from the Swedish society), Mozambique (with representatives from the Italian society), Pakistan (with representatives from the RCOG) and Uganda (with representatives from the Canadian society). Their aim was to define how maternity services can best be organised within the available and potentially available resources in order to handle efficiently early detection, referral and management of life-threatening complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
In Phase II the Country Teams developed, executed and tested a demonstration project at the district level in each of the selected developing countries, and evaluated the feasibility, impact and cost-effectiveness of the proposals made as a result of the assessment.
Practical implementation of the project was supervised by a Steering Committee which met twice a year and by the Alliance for Women's Health members who acted as an Advisory group to the Steering Committee.
The original five projects have now come to an end or have taken over by local interests. Articles on the individual projects, as well as an overview of the initiative as a whole, can be downloaded from the AMDD Pages section of this website.
A successor initiative - entitled the "FIGO Saving Mothers & Newborns Initiative" began in 2006.
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