BMJ  2007;335:798-800 (20 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39365.579016.94

Feature

Health in developing countries

Who cares for baby?

Hannah Brown, freelance journalist

Cambridge

Hannah@two-cultures.com

Divisions between maternal and child health services in the developing world, first reported 20 years ago, left services for newborns overlooked. Today, neonatal mortality is still unacceptably high. Hannah Brown reports on initiatives trying to bridge the gap

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

There are few better examples of the wasteful and damaging results of uncoordinated health efforts than in Cambodia. Hundreds of well meaning non-governmental organisations have taken up residence in various parts of the country's 20 provinces since the brutal civil war of the 1970s and 1980s gave way to peace. But although this massive influx of resources is welcome, the confusing array of organisations, programmes, and priorities has proved unable to meet Cambodia's needs—particularly when it comes to improving maternal and child health.

Many actors mean many approaches. This has created an incomprehensible patchwork of programmes that have a bewildering range of effects on the population's health. Unequipped for such a complex managerial challenge, the resource poor government has little capacity to get the non-governmental organisations to coordinate or put in place national programmes that can capitalise on the influx of resources. Instead, disparate independent aid offerings are often the . . . [Full text of this article]


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