The U of M has received US$12.5 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support research through the Institute for Global Public Health (IGPH). The project will focus on identifying barriers and improving access to family planning, maternal and newborn health services in some regions of Africa and Pakistan.
“UM is grateful to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for this important support that allows UM to continue to make positive impacts around the world. This grant allows Dr. Blanchard’s team to continue its valuable work helping to improve access to family planning and maternal, newborn and child healthcare in more regions,” stated Mario Pinto, the U of M’s vice-president (research and international), to UM Today.
“Collecting data from these unique geographies is an important step to furthering efforts that remove constraints and close gaps in the health care systems and improve the lives of women and their children,” he added.
The IGPH, led by Dr. James Blanchard, Canada’s research chair in epidemiology and global public health, has conducted extensive work in Uttar Pradesh, India in alignment with the Gates Foundation’s strategy to reduce maternal and infant mortality. This new US$12.5 million funding will enable IGPH to expand into new regions, forming partnerships with local governments and health organizations to strengthen family planning practices and access to healthcare services.
Blanchard stated that the new project will focus on Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, selected states in Nigeria and the Sindh province of Pakistan. He explained that these areas have been prioritized to accelerate progress in access to family planning, maternal and child health services. He further noted that the selection of these countries resulted from assessments conducted by both the governments and the Gates Foundation to improve the supply of family planning and maternal and child health services.
Blanchard stated that “the funding will predominantly support teams in [the] country to collect, to do mapping of health services and then to collect some detailed information about the human resources, the equipment and drug supplies that these health services have in the area of family planning, maternal and child health.”
Blanchard and his team are committed to completing the project within 15 months, barring any delays, and plan to release some information concerning the project soon.
They are also working closely with governments and local partners to ensure they see the value in the information being collected.
He mentioned, “we work very closely with the governments in each of these countries as main partners so that they can help to facilitate the data collection, and so that they can also help us to ensure that we’re collecting information that can be used for their planning.”
Some of the team members for the project from U of M include B.M. Ramesh, assistant professor of community health sciences, Shajy Isac, associate professor of community health sciences and Faran Emmanuel, associate professor, community health sciences. Additional members include Preeti Anand, family planning senior technical advisor for the IGPH, Pranav Bhushan, health systems advisor for the IGPH, Vikas Gothalwal, senior advisor for the IGPH, Tahira Reza, Pakistan country coordinator for the IGPH and Kalada Green, Nigeria country coordinator for the IGPH.
The research team will also work with the African Population and Health Research Center, which will include the Senegal office director, Cheikh Faye.
This project aims to understand the gaps in the availability of services and work with governments and other health system providers to improve the availability of these services. “Ultimately, for women who have an intention to access family planning services, we anticipate that there will be greater availability and greater utilization of modern methods of family planning,” Blanchard mentioned. “For maternal, newborn and child health, we anticipate that improving the supply of maternal, newborn and child health services, a greater proportion of women will be able to access antenatal care and effective delivery care and postpartum care so that it can reduce neonatal and maternal mortality,” he added.
The U of M is on a mission to engage its faculty, staff and students in activities that will significantly improve the well-being of people around the world. This project is a testament to how U of M is changing the narrative and making a positive impact.
Blanchard emphasized, “I think the first benefit will be an opportunity for U of M faculty and staff and students to contribute to well-being. I think that’s a positive thing for the U of M in terms of its service role.”
“Beyond that, I think it also expands opportunities for the U of M and the faculty to improve their experience in strengthening health systems in different geographies around the world. And I think the third thing is that it will provide an opportunity for developing methodologies that can be then used for training other people around the world and as well as within the U of M,” he added.
