Over €7 million NWO grant for research project on child and maternal health

At a time when international development assistance for health is under pressure, ROOTS1000 focuses on a critical period in the lives of mothers and children: the first 1,000 days - from pregnancy to a child's second birthday. UNICEF identifies this as the most critical period for good nutrition, growth and development. 

Learning across different health systems

Researchers, local experts and other partners across Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan will investigate how effective interventions in these first 1000 days can be better integrated into health systems, financed and sustained. 

ROOTS1000 builds on existing evidence to develop and evaluate integrated care approaches that bring together maternal mental health, obstetric care, nutrition and early child development interventions and explore how these approaches can be sustainably implemented and scaled in local health systems and their financing structures. The project aims to produce evidence and guidance that can support more integrated and sustainable approaches to maternal and child health and development.

'If we really want to make changes in those crucial and vulnerable first 1000 days, we need communities, policy makers, implementers, researchers and practitioners from different fields and contexts to work together as equitable partners. And that is exactly what the ROOTS1000 consortium is doing.'            

Dr Zemzem Shigute Shuka, Principal Investigator of ROOTS1000.

NWA-ORC programme

The grant for ROOTS1000 comes from the NWA-ORC programme (Research along Routes by Consortia). This programme aims to enable inter- and transdisciplinary innovative research that brings scientific and societal breakthroughs within reach. It is part of the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA).