Manoshi Research Briefs

Bangladesh is a country of 55,000 square kilometres with 150 million people, 25% of whom currently live in urban slums. Despite success in population control, the size of the population is expected to stabilize at 250 million by 2085. One of the very striking features of the future population of the country is that nearly 60% of the population will live in urban slums by 2030. In the absence of appropriate health services, the health of the newborn, infants and their mothers is likely to suffer. This makes urban health issues, especially of the slum dwellers, of high priority. Keeping this in mind BRAC has started a Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) programme, known as Manoshi (Ma O Nobajatak Shishu), in 2007 in Dhaka slums which may gradually be extended to all the slums of Bangladesh by 2011. The major goals of Manoshi are to ensure safe motherhood by way of safe delivery and newborn and child care. Various researches are being carried out in support of Manoshi since its inception. Manoshi Research Briefs are a fast track mechanism devoted to sharing the findings to various stakeholders interested in the health of the urban population especially of the poor.

For further information on Manoshi research, contact Abbas Bhuiya at abbas@icddrb.org or Syed Masud Ahmed at ahmed.sm@brac.net. For more information on the Manoshi programme, contact Kaosar Afsana at afsana.k@brac.net.  To subcribe, contact Rumesa Rowen Aziz at rraziz@icddrb.org.

Manoshi Research Briefs

Manoshi Research Brief Issue 2

Manoshi Research Brief Issue 1