On 30-31 March 2017 the Maternal Health Task Force and the Centre for Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto co-hosted a technical discussion in Boston on health in conflict settings. Participants included individuals with varied experience and vast expertise addressing health issues among people displaced (and not displaced but affected) by war, conflict, famine, natural disasters, and epidemics. Specifically, the 23 participants discussed ways to understand better the situation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH&N) interventions for populations in crisis or affected by crisis through case studies.
Together with representatives from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and Columbia University, as well as key non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, and select Harvard University faculty, the group discussed approaches to conduct case studies in order to gather important evidence to inform policies and programs. Participants agreed to conduct up to ten case studies (pending funding support) in the following eighteen months.
These case studies will inform a critical evidence base that is part of a larger package of work that includes improving the current knowledge of the burden and epidemiology of conflict and synthesizing existing evidence from published and grey literature to understand better RMNCAH&N interventions in selected geographies and situations.
Meeting Report
View a PDF of the meeting report.