The Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program (AMDD) at the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University is a global program of research, advocacy, policy analysis and program support dedicated to the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity.
In the seven years since its founding, AMDD and its partners have worked in some 50 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America with a focus on expanding availability, quality and utilization of emergency obstetric care (EmOC).
Future directions for the program include increased attention to health systems factors that constrain or facilitate equitable access to life-saving care, and to integration of facility-based EmOC interventions with other dimensions of the “continuum of care.”
Delivering EmOC at scale, and ensuring appropriate and equitable utilization of EmOC services, depends on strengthening the health system and is the focus of AMDD´s “Going to Scale” project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This project concentrates on systemic barriers to scale-up of EmOC, such as human resources, equity, cost and referral.
More information about AMDD´s experiences and lessons learned can be found in the 2004 Evaluation Report and 1999-2005 Project Report.