Immpact’s Jaqueline Bell and Julia Hussein recently travelled to Edinburgh along with Professor Tracey Humphrey from Robert Gordon University to meet with Ian Nicol and Magnus Maharg from the International Development Division of the Scottish Government to update them on the progress being made with the Immpact led project “Rural Midwifery in Malawi”. Immpact, Robert Gordon University and the Ministry of Health in Malawi are working together on the project which aims to build on efforts by the Government of Malawi to increase the numbers and enhance the skills of midwives in rural areas. There’s a chronic shortage of trained health workers in Malawi and addressing the shortage is seen as key to reducing the number of maternal and newborn deaths in the country which is still unacceptably high; 8 women die in childbirth in Malawi every day. The current project is due for completion in March 2015. The visit was well timed as discussions about potential new projects also took place.
The team from Aberdeen also met with collaborators from the Institute for International Health and Development (IIHD) at Queen Margaret University for wide-ranging discussions regarding several potential collaborations in key areas of research and teaching.