Funding boost for Africa and Asia maternal health

A £2.8 million grant has been awarded to help raise maternal and newborn health standards in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bangladesh, India and Sierra Leone.

The UK's Department for International Development has made the finance available to The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) – a member association of FIGO - and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in a bid to reduce the number of women and children dying due to pregnancy and childbirth complications.

The three-year project – titled Making It Happen – will assess how training and supervision of health care providers in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia improves the quality and uptake of care.

RCOG vice-president Dr Tony Falconer described the award as "very good news" for women in under-resourced countries.

He added: "Mothers are dying needlessly in many countries due to a lack of access to the very basic care that we take for granted in the west."

Last week, the United Nations Children's Fund claimed that improving maternal health needed to be made a top priority in Ghana, where standards have not improved noticeably over the last decade.