RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY FUND LAUNCHED TO HELP IMPROVE MOTHER AND CHILD CARE IN PAKISTAN

London, October 28, 2009:

The Department for International Development (DFID) and Australian Agency for International Development’s today announced £18.3 million for a Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF) aimed at improving the lives of all mothers and children across Pakistan.

Every year 15,000 women in Pakistan die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Over 60% of births are not attended by skilled professionals. This support is in addition to DFID’s £69 million direct assistance to the government’s Maternal and Newborn Child Health programme.

RAF was formally launched today. It is an exciting new initiative that seeks to combine effective communication with high quality, relevant research to improve mother and child health policies and practices across Pakistan.

The five year programme is being managed by a consortium of agencies from Pakistan and the UK led by the British Council. RAF will provide a mix of small and large grants of up to £500,000 each. Proposals will be encouraged from public institutions, civil society organisations, research and academic institutions, private consulting firms, individual consultants and national and international consortia.

The first Call for Proposals will be issued this week through the national media and on the RAF website (www.rafpakistan.org), which is a central resource of information, guidelines and news for potential applicants.

“DFID is proud to be supporting RAF,” comments George Turkington, Head of DFID’s country office in Pakistan.

“The value of research lies in how it gets used by policy-makers with the power to make a real difference to the lives of communities across the country. Giving people a voice to demand the health services their families need is critical in the fight to save and improve the lives of women and children in Pakistan.”