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Confidential Enquiry is a method of investigating adverse events without attributing blame. The aim is to learn lessons to avoid the same event happening again.

Many of the childhood and maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could be prevented by timely and effective primary care. Lack of such care has many causes including lack of local facilities, lack of ability to pay, lack of adequately trained staff and lack of drugs. Sometimes inefficiency and corruption mean that the necessary resources go missing.

With the Universities of Mbarara (MUST, Uganda) and Bamako (Mali), we are trialling the use of Confidential Enquiry into child and maternal deaths in Uganda and Mali. By involving local people and politicians in discussing the causes of each death investigated we are seeking to facilitate remedial action by both local and central government as well as local primary health care staff.

Read our Report: Why Children Die

For more information, contact Merlin Willcox.