Investigating the inter-relationships between population, health and poverty Southampton’s Centre for Global Health, Population, Poverty and Policy (GHP3) enlists academics from across the University to investigate the inter-relationships between health, population and poverty among individuals and societies. Much research is underway tracking the progress and challenges towards the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), announced in 2000 and aimed at improving the quality of life for people in the world’s poorest countries. Professor Zoe Matthews, of the University of Southampton, and colleague Professor Wendy Graham, from the University of Aberdeen, have developed a comprehensive knowledge base on the progress of the specific goals aimed at reducing maternal and newborn death rates. Around half a million women still die in childbirth each year; some 3.6 million babies fail to survive their first month of life. These facts will be used by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to urge action by world leaders. Zoe and her team produced an ‘Atlas of Birth’, which provides compelling evidence of problem areas and illustrates where immediate work needs to be done to improve death rates. The Atlas highlights that an estimated 82 percent of maternal, newborn and child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Contrasts are dramatic. In Niger, a woman has a one in seven chance of dying from maternal causes; in Sweden this is one in 17,400. The evidence gathered will feed into the new Government strategy on maternal health for poor countries. A key feature of the Atlas is the statistics on births to girls under 16 years old living in poor countries.
Photograph provided courtesy of Professor Nyovani Madise
In addition, social scientists from GHP3 are part of a consortium led by Southampton civil engineers which has been awarded funding of £2.6 million to develop sustainable off-grid electricity supply systems in rural Africa. The grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) will enable the group to undertake the electrification of villages in rural Africa and assess its impact on people’s lives using the United Nations MDGs lens. In many developing countries the upfront cost of connecting rural villages to the nearest electrical distribution network is, and is likely to remain, prohibitively expensive. A reliable electrical supply is, however, vital for development in key areas including health, education and small businesses. Professor Nyovani Madise from GHP3 says: “Improving the well-being of rural people in Africa is a challenge that requires a multidisciplinary approach. This project will hopefully demonstrate how a single intervention can address multidimensional aspects of rural poverty and health.” www.southampton.ac.uk/ghp3
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