Professors Laura Ferguson and Sofia Gruskin commenced an exciting new project with CONCERN Worldwide U.S. this month entitled Innovations for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Innovations is a multi-country project that seeks to accelerate the discovery and testing of creative solutions to understand and overcome barriers that prevent essential health services from reaching women and children in low-income countries. The initiative is supported by a multi-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and brings together UNICEF, Options, and the John Snow Research and Training Institute as well as a range of in-country partners. Professors Gruskin and Ferguson will work to ensure that a human rights based approach is incorporated systematically into each project and to provide evidence of how attention to human rights helps to understand and overcome the barriers that prevent women and children from accessing essential health services.
