Written by Lorna Benton, PhD candidate at the UCL Institute for Global Health.

A recent Lancet meta-analysis (http://bit.ly/10Jz9Gc) demonstrated the success of women’s group interventions in significantly reducing maternal and new-born mortality rates.

Following on from this, the Institute for Global Health and the Grand Challenge for Global Health hosted a joint symposium with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, entitled ‘Community based new-born and maternal care’, to ask how such community based women’s groups could be used to deliver life-saving information and support globally.

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Back in 2000 the world committed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) to galvanize efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by 2015. Although significant progress has been made, reaching all the goals continues to be challenging. As 2015 approaches, Mike Rowson (UCL Centre for International Health and Development) led an engaging UCL Institute for Global Health debate on 21 July to explore what we’ve learned from the MDGs and what the next chapter in development should look like.

From left: Lucy Scott (Overseas Development Institute), Karen Newman (Population and Sustainability Network) and Dr Meera Tiwari (University of East London). Credit: Sarah Ball

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