Healthy mothers and healthy environments produce healthy children. In developing countries, too many women are dying during pregnancy or child birth and too many children are not living long enough to see their fifth birthday.

More than one-and-a-half million women every year will die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Though hemorrhages, infections, and eclampsia might be direct causes, the root of maternal morbidity lies in the inaccessibility, unaffordability, and unavailability of quality care. These issues can be lessened by giving young women access to family planning services, skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth, and post-abortion care services when permissible.

At the same time, an estimated six million children die each year from preventable causes. Scientific and medical advances already exist to improve their chances of survival from childhood diseases and risk factors. Oral rehydration therapy could prevent up to one-and-a-half million of these deaths. Breastfeeding could keep 1.3 million infants from dying. Insecticide-treated bednets would save more than 500,000 children.

In 2000, the United Nations set an ambitious goal to reduce childhood deaths by two-thirds and maternal morbidity by three-quarters by the year 2015. Reaching this goal will require more than scientific expertise. Leadership and effective management processes are also needed to bring existing and new interventions to scale throughout countries’ service sites and communities. To contribute to this goal, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) develops managers at all levels of health systems to work with policy makers, providers, and communities to scale up and sustain quality maternal, newborn, and child health interventions.

In particular, MSH works with others to:

• Mobilize Global Partnerships for Child Health
• Coordinate Stakeholders in Countries around Key Policies
• Expand the Boundaries of Interventions
• Increase Access to Staff Development and Information