Katherine Austin-Evelyn

Background In 2010, South Africa’s National Department of Health launched a national primary health care (PHC) initiative to strengthen health promotion, disease prevention, and early disease detection. The strategy, called Re-engineering Primary Health Care (rPHC), aims to provide a preventive and health-promoting community-based PHC model. A key...

Global health initiatives (GHIs) are implemented across a variety of geographies and cultures. Those targeting maternal health often prioritise increasing facility delivery rates. Pressure on local implementers to meet GHI goals may lead to unintended programme features that could negatively impact women. This study investigates penalties for home...

The South African National Department of Health has rapidly extended free public-sector antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV from 2007. Approximately 6 million people are living with HIV in South Africa, with 3.1 million currently on treatment. HIV disclosure stigma has been reduced in high prevalence, generalized epidemic settings,...

There is growing interest in the use of incentives to increase the utilisation of maternal health services globally, including the use of in-kind goods. As part of the Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) programme, pregnant women in three districts in Uganda were incentivised to deliver in a facility by the promise of 'Mama Kits' - clean delivery ki...

Saving Mothers, Giving Life is a multidonor program designed to reduce maternal mortality in Uganda and Zambia. We used a quasirandom research design to evaluate its effects on provider obstetric knowledge, clinical confidence, and job satisfaction, and on patients' receipt of services, perceived quality, and satisfaction. Study participants were 1...

Transportation is an important barrier to accessing obstetric care for many pregnant and postpartum women in low-resource settings, particularly in rural areas. However, little is known about how pregnant women travel to health facilities in these settings. We conducted 1633 exit surveys with women who had a recent facility delivery and 48 focus gr...

In the past decade, "big push" global health initiatives financed by international donors have aimed to rapidly reach ambitious health targets in low-income countries. The health system impacts of these efforts are infrequently assessed. Saving Mothers, Giving Life is a global public-private partnership that aims to reduce maternal mortality dramat...