Our mission is to conduct impactful, context-specific research that addresses the complex issues of maternal and newborn health in urban settings.

The UrbanBirth Collective is a partnership of research institutions working together with stakeholders toward context-specific understanding of problems and solutions in sub-Saharan African cities.

Improving Maternal Health in Urban Africa

The ambition of the UrbanBirth Collective is to reach zero preventable maternal deaths in cities. The main aim of research projects under the umbrella of the UrbanBirthCollective is to develop an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of maternal healthcare within and across cities in sub-Saharan Africa. The key focus is care during labour and childbirth, the predominant contributor to maternal and perinatal mortality. Our projects include harnessing open source data to examine and compare dozens of cities on the continent at the same time as looking at three cities in-depth: Grand Conakry (Guinea), Great Nokoué metropolitan area (Benin) and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo).
70%
68% of all maternal deaths globally happen in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with 545 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
2X
2x higher newborn mortality was estimated in core, densely populated urban areas in Tanzania compared to rural areas.
The urban advantage in survival compared to rural areas might be reversing.
90%
90% of women in large sub-Saharan African cities receive care in health facilities during pregnancy and childbirth.
Unlike at any time in human history, the majority of women in the world use modern medical care in health facilities during pregnancy and childbirth.
60 mil
60 million births will occur in urban areas by 2030.
Two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 and nearly 90% of these additional 2.5 billion urban residents will concentrate in Africa and Asia.

The ambition of the UrbanBirth Collective is to reach zero preventable maternal deaths in cities.

The main aim of research projects under the umbrella of the UrbanBirthCollective is to develop an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of maternal healthcare, within and across cities in sub-Saharan Africa. The key focus is care during labour and childbirth, the predominant contributor to poor maternal and perinatal mortality. Our starting projects include harnessing open source data to examine and compare dozens of cities on the continent at the same time as looking at three cities in-depth: Grand Conakry (Guinea), Grand Nokoué metropolitan area (Benin) and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo).

Our Story

The story of research on urban maternal health in the ITM team started in 2019 with research projects focusing on sub-Saharan African cities. Over the years, our work has expanded, consolidating into the UrbanBirth collaborative with key partner institutions and research projects.
2019
Start of a study examining barriers to providing good quality postnatal care funded by FWO/Research Foundation Flanders, which included the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Guinea.
2020
MATCO study started. As a part of it, we conducted a mixed-methods, longitudinal in-depth case study of preparedness and response to COVID-19 in seven large maternity/newborn hospital wards in large cities in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Guinea, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania).
2021
Health-seeking and health outcomes in urban sub-Saharan Africa: In this portfolio of studies, we use secondary data to study the dynamics that arise between the provision and the utilisation of maternal and newborn health services in urban areas, particularly in large cities.
2022
The three UrbanMat studies under the Fifth Framework Agreement between ITM and the Belgian Development Cooperation were launched: Guinea, Lubumbashi and Cotonou.
2023
The four-year Discontinu_Cities project was awarded by FWO/Research Foundation Flanders.
2024
The UrbanBirth Collective was officially formed by four founding partner institutions: Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium; L'Ecole de Santé Publique de l'Université de Lubumbashi (ESP/UNILU) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Centre d’excellence Africain pour la prévention et le contrôle des maladies transmissibles (CEA-PCMT) in Guinea and Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) in Benin.

Our approach

At the core of our Collective are four key values guiding our thinking and ways of working.
Open science
We strive to make all data open-access, including study protocols and data collection tools, within the data protection and safety requirements.
Learning and capacity strengthening
Everyone in the Collective is constantly learning and it offers a platform for knowledge exchange and cross-country exchange.

We are particularly proud of our support to numerous PhD candidates and postdoctoral scientists.
Engagement and collaboration
With stakeholders is a key priority to ensure interest and relevance of the work within each local context.
Multisectoral collaboration
Urban maternal and newborn health is a complex problem, and it warrants engagement with experts from various fields, including policy and decision makers, researchers, academics, epidemiologists, clinicians, experts in urbanicity, city planning and design, environmental specialists, and others.

Our team

Lenka Beňová
Professor
ITM, Belgium
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Lenka is fascinated by cities and hospitals as prime examples of complex institutions relevant to health and well-being. She applies mainly quantitative methods from epidemiology and demography to primary and secondary data to understand and address issues of access to and provision of health care and its quality.
Peter M. Macharia
Senior postdoctoral researcher
ITM, Belgium
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Peter is a geospatial epidemiologist. He is interested in spatial health metrics for an improved understanding of disparities and vulnerabilities at high spatial resolution in sub-Sharan Africa. His current work involves defining geographic access to emergency obstetric care and defining vulnerability indices, coverage of interventions, disease prevalence and associated obstacles for maternal health in urban areas.
Aline Semaan
Junior researcher, PhD Candidate
ITM, Belgium
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Aline is dedicated to unpacking the needs of women, families, and maternity healthcare providers in dynamic urban contexts, and settings with limited resources. Through mixed-methods research, she aims to leverage connections and discrepancies between quantitative indicators and lived experiences, using these insights to inform guidelines and practice for person-centred care.
Rehema Ouko
PhD researcher (mathematical modelling)
ITM, Belgium
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Rehema is passionate about using a system dynamics approach to quantitatively model urban maternal health systems. This involves exploring and understanding the complex interactions and feedback loops within urban health environments to identify potential improvements and policy interventions that can enhance maternal health outcomes. This approach aids in strategic planning and helps in making well-informed decisions to address the dynamic challenges, disruptions, and discontinuities faced by urban maternal health systems.
Ann Njogu
Junior Researcher (geospatial)
ITM, Belgium
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Ann is committed to improving livelihoods among vulnerable populations. Leveraging her experience in using geospatial data to promote sustainable food systems, she is now shifting her focus to maternal health care. She will focus on analyzing, mapping, and evaluating the accessibility of health facilities in urban areas. Her goal is to ensure effective delivery of maternal health services and enhance health outcomes through data-driven insights.
Lorenzo Libertini
Junior Researcher (geospatial)
ITM, Belgium
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Lorenzo is passionate about leveraging geospatial data to improve the understanding of multidimensional vulnerability to all kinds of human and natural hazards in data-scarce countries and regions, as well as their visualization and communication to the public and stakeholders. This also includes analyses on the state of public health and the vulnerability to health outbreaks, i.e., both the preparedness and the risk for the outbreaks to cause widespread human loss both directly and indirectly (i.e., by way of insufficient infrastructure)
Marie Alice Mosuse
PhD researcher
ITM, Belgium
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Marie Alice is a sociologist dedicated to improving reproductive and maternal health. She is interested in exploring how social and cultural factors influence reproductive behaviors and health outcomes. Her current research focuses on the geographic distribution and integration of family planning services with other health service packages in urban settings.
Manuela Straneo
Consultant, ITM
ITM, Belgium
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Manuela is a researcher, physician and consultant, focused on health services for childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa. She is interested in urban areas, where economic disparities are widened. Her work, using mostly quantitative methods on primary and secondary data, examines health systems through the lens of inequality, to highlight disparities and identify strategies to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Claudia Nieto Sanchez
Senior postdoctoral researcher
ITM, Belgium
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Claudia's current research is focused in understanding the impact of socio-spatial variation on disease distribution. Specifically, she is interested in exploring—under interdisciplinary perspectives— how private and public uses of the space, as well social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics shaping diverse spatial configurations, influence disease occurrence and shape health itineraries in the population.
Stefanie Dens
ITM, Belgium
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Catherine Birabwa
PhD researcher
ITM, Belgium
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Catherine is a pharmacist and health systems researcher, with particular interest in health service delivery improvement. Using a systems thinking approach, she aims to establish ways in which health systems can be strengthened, by exploring the alignment between women’s care-seeking pathways and maternal health service delivery arrangements, including the influence of health systems governance.
Amani Kikula
PhD researcher
ITM, Belgium
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Amani is an obstetrician working to bring reproductive health evidence through research to inform policy and practice. Diabetes and other NCDs affecting women in reproductive age is an area in which he has developed great interest, using both primary and secondary data in the area.
Alexandre Delamou
Professor
CEA-PCMT, Guinea
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Prof. Dr. Delamou is fascinated with scientic collaborations that integrate capacity building and knowledge/technology transfer and also strategies to integrate the culture of research in health services and programmes. His expertise covers maternal, child, and reproductive health) and infectious diseases including those with epidemic potential. His research includes clinical research, implementation science research and operational research.
Fassou Mathias Grovogui
CEA-PCMT, Guinea
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Fassou Mathias is a medical doctor and public health researcher with a strong interest in maternal and reproductive health in the complex urban settings of Sub-Saharan Africa. His work primarily involves the use of quantitative primary and secondary data to provide evidence on the provision, accessibility, and utilization of healthcare services. His current work explores the accessibility of referral hospitals and the outcomes for women referred to these facilities.
Nafissatou Dioubate
MPH resercher
CEA-PCMT, Guinea
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Nafissatou is a medical doctor and public health researcher with a strong interest in maternal and reproductive health in the complex urban settings of Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work mainly involves the use of qualitative data to explore in depth the issues surrounding the provision, accessibility and use of maternal and child health care services, with the aim of providing convincing evidence. Her current work focuses on the complexity of utilization and accessibility of maternal and child healthcare services in urban contexts.
Hawa Manet
CEA-PCMT, Guinea
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Hawa is a physician and public health researcher with a particular interest in maternal, sexual and reproductive health in resource-limited countries. Her work mainly involves the use of mixed data to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and challenges in this field. Her current work focuses on the accessibility of referral hospitals and the outcomes achieved by women referred to urban maternity clinics in Guinea, and the management of online training in Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Tamba Mina Millimouno
PhD researcher
CEA-PCMT, Guinea
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Mina is a dedicated health system researcher committed to addressing complex health challenges in resource-limited settings. He is particularly interested in understanding how health systems can learn and adapt to improve policy-making, management, and care delivery. He is investigating what and how Guinea’s health system learns from respectful maternity care and maternal mental health, examining how these insights can be used to address mistreatment in maternity wards and improve maternal mental health outcomes.
Abel Ntambue Mukengeshayi
Professor
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Abel Ntambue Mukengeshayi is an epidemiologist devoted to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). Using quantitative and mixed methods, he is dedicated to addressing concerns related to the determinants of maternal, newborn and child health; the provision of services (interventions); care-seeking, and the implementation and evaluation of maternal and child health interventions and strategies.
Angèle Musau Nkola
Professor
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Angèle is interested in improving maternal and newborn health. She analyzes indicators of service utilization in a complex and adaptive urban context. Her analyses use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, in epidemiology and health economic evaluation. Her battlefield is the achievement of universal health coverage through the establishment of a health system where all resources are organized in an equitable and sustainable manner for the well-being of mothers and newborns.
Abdulu Mahuridi
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Abdulu Mahuridi is an epidemiologist. He is interested in maternal and neonatal health. He uses mixed quantitative and qualitative methods in epidemiology to analyze indicators of service use in urban and rural areas. Currently, he monitors maternal mortality and survival of near-misses with a view to highlighting the quality of life of near-misses. He is also interested in emergency obstetric and neonatal referrals which are often late due to the ineffective system, the route taken and the means of transport used. Its main focus is having a resilient system that guarantees universal access to care and improves the health of the mother-child pair.
Tabitha Ilunga
Professor
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Tabitha is a teacher and researcher in the field of epidemiology, maternal, newborn and child health. She is interested in the field of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS infection. She is an assistant professor in field epidemiology courses, epidemiological surveillance, research methodology and field surveys at the University of Lubumbashi.
DeBaïf Mutombo
Junior Researcher
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Debaïf is a specialist in epidemiology and biostatistics, with a focus on maternal and neonatal health through the application of mixed methods research. His research interests include prenatal care, specifically investigating the interactions between the diagnosis of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and anemia during pregnancy and the trajectory of antenatal care (ANC) service utilization. Leveraging his foundational training in medical biology, he also explores the associations between biological testing for infections, anemia, and other conditions, and the subsequent continuation or interruption of prenatal care in urban settings with complex health systems.
Niclette Lakula
Junior Researche
ESP/UNILU, DRC
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Niclette is a nutritionist specializing in epidemiology, disease prevention and control. Her area of interest is the nutrition and health of pregnant women, mothers who have given birth and postpartum. Currently, her research is focused in the city of Lubumbashi where on the one hand urban poverty, and on the other hand, the characteristics of the urban health system (skills, qualification and allocation of personnel, availability and accessibility of planning and services nutritional education) which have consequences on the health and nutrition of the mother and child.
Jean-Paul Dossou
Director
CERRHUD, Benin
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Jean-Paul is a scientist who advocates against inequalities in access to healthcare. He views cities as laboratories for studying future challenges in sexual and reproductive health and innovation.
Christelle Boyi Metogni
Head of the Biostatistics, Population Epidemiology and Disease Control Department
CERRHUD, Benin
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In a world where public health challenges are multiplying with each health crisis, Christelle advocates for pushing the boundaries of knowledge and action in the field of public health, particularly concerning the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality. She is dedicated to research on maternal and neonatal health, accountability, and healthcare purchasing.
Cybèle Hounmenou
Research fellow
CERRHUD, Benin
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Cybèle is interested in the health of mothers and newborns in urban areas. Through a study focused on the expectations and needs of women during the postnatal period in urban settings, she uses a qualitative method to explore these expectations and needs as comprehensively as possible, in order to identify unmet needs that require interventions to improve the quality of maternal and neonatal healthcare in urban environments.
Elias Avahoundje
Demographer / Research assistant
CERRHUD, Benin
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A demographer with a passion for research on sexual health, Elias leverages his skills in statistics and demography to help improve the quality of care, reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, and promote sexual and reproductive rights, particularly in disadvantaged settings. He is also interested in inequalities in access to healthcare services and their impact on the health outcomes of vulnerable populations.
Christian Agossou
Statistician
CERRHUD, Benin
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Christian is a statistician specializing in public health, working in the field of maternal and child health. He focuses on measuring the quality of maternal care and understanding the social phenomena that lead to poor maternal and child health, such as socio-economic inequalities, health financing, environmental conditions and sub-optimal care-seeking behavior.
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