Lancet Series 2018: Optimizing Caesarean Section Use

This case tracks Dr. Sam Thenya’s challenges in establishing and sustaining two Kenyan health organizations for women’s health. Thenya founded the Gender Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC) and the Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH) Medical Training College. In particular, the case focuses on the choices made as he expanded these two closely connected enterprises even though the GVRC was a non-profit enterprise while the NWH was a for-profit enterprise. Students consider how he led change to improve…

This case study describes how a program to replace dirt floors with concrete became a national development initiative in Mexico. In 2000, the Mexican state of Coahuila launched “Piso Firme” (“Solid Floor”), a program to replace dirt floors with cement ones. An independent impact evaluation established the association between concrete flooring and improved child health, improved maternal well-being, and reduced poverty, which attracted national government funding and sustained political commitment to facilitate scale-up across the…

This Lancet Series examines pathways toward optimizing child and adolescent health and development worldwide. This series follows nearly two decades after the original Lancet Series on child survival was published and finds that progress toward child and adolescent health has been too slow - with the world off track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for child health. The papers emphasize supporting the health and development of children from preconception through adulthood and discuss…