Evaluation of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program

In 1999, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a five-year grant to the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University for a program titled “Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD).” The program aims to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity by focusing on critical emergency obstetric care interventions in low resource environments of developing countries through a human rights-based approach. AMDD was designed as an implementation program with no explicit research objectives. Principally, the program provides support and technical assistance to develop the capacity to provide emergency obstetrical care.