African science academies to release report

SCIENCE IN ACTION: SAVING THE LIVES OF AFRICA'S MOTHERS, NEWBORNS, AND CHILDREN is being released on Nov. 9 at the fifth annual conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) in Accra, Ghana. The report, by the national science academies of seven African countries, estimates the number of women, newborns, and children under five in sub-Saharan Africa whose lives could be saved if already well-established, affordable health interventions were scaled up to cover more of the population, and how far that would go in meeting the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, the target date of which is 2015.

The lives-saved figures in the new report were calculated using modeling software recently developed by an international group of researchers. The report also analyzes the number of lives that could be saved by feasible increases in coverage of select interventions in nine specific countries, as well as the cost of doing so.

ASADI -- a multiyear collaboration among several African science academies, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and others -- aims to strengthen the capacity of the African academies to inform policymaking through evidence-based advice. To that end, SCIENCE IN ACTION also includes recommendations on how scientists and other experts can partner with governments and development agencies to use the latest evidence to make strategic investments in interventions likely to have the most immediate impact on families most in need.

Source: National Academy of Sciences