Clean Cooking and Child Survival Meeting Report
On May 13th, 2014, the Alliance brought together researchers from various academic institutions and countries in the fields of child health and environmental science and experience in clean cookstoves and/or child survival to discuss the past, present and future of research efforts on child survival and clean cooking (see Appendix 1 for a listing of participants). The purpose of this meeting was to convene researchers currently or potentially conducting randomized control trials focused on the link between exposure to household air pollution and child survival. Additional topics to be addressed were intended to facilitate the harmonization of approaches taken across studies, including: evaluation of the intensity of adoption, challenges with outcome assessments in field settings, and potential methods and approaches to exposure assessment.
Confirmed participants included researchers from ongoing Alliance-funded studies on clean cooking and child survival in Ghana, Nepal, and Nigeria; the recently launched study in Malawi; and the Guatemala trial. Also participating were colleagues working in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, and India. This meeting provided an opportunity for researchers to share progress, interim results, and learnings from their experience. A few representatives of the public and private sector with an interest in child survival also participated.
