Reproductive health research in China: the Ford Foundation initiatives

Increasing demographic and epidemiological evidence shows that maternal health problems are widespread and are linked to social, cultural, and economic factors, in particular, to women's status in society. Thus, there is an urgent need to expand existing knowledge about these influences on reproductive health and to empower women to gain control over them. To this end, there is a need for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on social science research and training. The Ford Foundation, after an extensive review of its work in population and development, embarked on a new, ten-year, comprehensive reproductive health program for the 1990s. This paper describes one component of that program, a partnership with the All China Women's Federation to sponsor a series of reproductive health research activities. It examines the development and evaluates the positive and negative outcomes of the project, which commenced in 1991, from the perspective of a consultant involved in the process. So far, the project has generated interest in reproductive health in at least twenty-one Chinese provinces and has fostered a real partnership between the sponsoring and the collaborating agency. Based on the immediate outcomes of a research competition designed to identify research projects and investigators, of participant evaluation of the methodology training course, and of the strategies aimed at building capabilities and strengthening institutions in order to ensure future success, I conclude that the Ford Foundation's reproductive health initiative in China is a worthwhile and sustainable project.