Development Projects to Improve Maternal and Child Health: Assessing the Impact

Abstract:  Demographic and social conditions in Ethiopia pose serious challenges to human survival. These challenges are particularly relevant to women, who often have the prime responsibility for the welfare of children and the family at large. Women's status in Ethiopia, as in other developing countries, is low, and their daily workload is often enormous. Women have the dual responsibility of both reproducing and ensuring the survival of their children. Leisure time for women is declining due to increasing economic difficulties; even the period of confinement following childbirth has declined. There have been many initiatives to improve the life of people living in rural Ethiopia over the last few decades, but many of these initiatives were not systematically evaluated. Thus, the short-term and long-term impacts of development interventions in Ethiopia remain largely unknown or unreported. In a new study in PLoS Medicine, Mhairi Gibson and Ruth Mace attempted to evaluate the effect of improved water access in rural Ethiopia—a development initiative that reduces women's workloads since they no longer have to collect water from distant sites—on birthrate and child malnutrition. As such, this study is a very important step forward in making developmental interventions evidenced based and contextual. Citation: Berhane Y (2006) Development Projects to Improve Maternal and Child Health: Assessing the Impact. PLoS Med 3(4): e192. doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.0030192