Maternal Undernutrition: Evidence, Links, and Solutions

Please join the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative, the Maternal Health Task Force, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for the final event of the 2009-2010 series Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health.

Maternal Undernutrition: Evidence, Links, and Solutions
featuring
Amy Webb Girard, Assistant Professor, Emory University School of Public Health
Masuma Mamdani, Senior Researcher, Research on Poverty Alleviation and
Consultant of IHI Tanzania (videoconference)
Doyin Oluwole, Director of Africa’s Health in 2010, Academy for Educational Development

December 15, 2010
9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
5th Floor Conference Room
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Please RSVP to globalhealth@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.

Maternal nutrition is often overlooked as a key strategy to reducing poverty, yet research demonstrates that prioritizing women and children at the center of nutrition intervention programs creates significant opportunities to improve survival and enhance economic development. In order to stimulate reform at national and international levels, increased research, funding, and strategic coordination will be necessary.

Amy Webb Girard, assistant professor at Emory University will discuss the nutritional needs of mothers, such as anemia and iron supplementation, and address how putting mothers and children at the center of nutritional interventions saves lives. Masuma Mamdani, senior researcher at Research on Poverty Alleviation and consultant of IHI Tanzania, will present effective strategies for safely and routinely procuring appropriate micro-nutrients for different populations in a range of settings. Doyin Oluwole, director of Africa’s Health in 2010 at the Academy for Educational Development, will address the relationship between nutrition and poverty and the implications for the development community, including how under-nutrition affects the Millennium Development Goals.

About the Maternal Health Policy Series
The reproductive and maternal health community finds itself at a critical point, drawing increased attention and funding, but still confronting more than 350,000 deaths each year and a high unmet need for family planning. The Policy Dialogue series seeks to galvanize the community by focusing on important issues within the maternal health community. The Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative is pleased to present this series with its co-conveners, the Maternal Health Task Force and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and is grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Global Health for further technical assistance.

If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast. The webcast will begin approximately 10 minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.

You may also send your questions and comments to the panel by emailing them ahead of time to: globalhealth@wilsoncenter.org

Note: Photo identification is required to enter the building. Please allow additional time to pass through security.