Week 6: Women’s transport needs: emergency obstetric transport services in Africa

This lecture explores the relationship between transport and maternal mortality in Africa. It explores the way in which information communication technologies can be aligned with transport to significantly reduce maternal mortality in Africa.

The key readings are:

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/mg294/maternalmortality.html

http://www.riders.org/en/html/transport.php

In Africa, maternal mortality rates are rising whereas in the rest of the world they are decreasing. Moreover, maternal mortality rates in Africa are already extremely high.

Despite the importance of emergency obstetric transport in achieving a reduction in maternal mortality rates, this element is much neglected by transport policy makers and health provision schemes alike. The first reading provides a tool kit through which this very important policy gap on gender, transport and information communication technology can be explored - information technology, we will find is critical in making the match between patient in crisis, available emergency obstetric transport and health facilities at the end of the patient's journey.

The second reading provides an example of emergency obstetric transport developments in Africa and indicates the type of project which can be used by transport and health agencies in achieving the necessary and much needed reduction in maternal mortality.

For further discussion of this topic go to http://www.geocities.com/gender_and_transport/seminar2notes4.htm

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