Our vision
A world where women, children and adolescents not only survive, but thrive across the life course.
Our Mission
We amplify research, innovation and evidence based policy and practice by promoting collaboration within and beyond LSHTM, and between researchers, practitioners and policymakers across the globe.
We strengthen the capacity of current and future leaders through education, research, and policy engagement, supporting the development and use of evidence to improve health of women, children, and adolescents worldwide.
- Our strategic objectives
Objective 1: Forge cross-Centre collaborations in LSHTM to strengthen interdisciplinary research and innovation and maximise impact.
Objective 2: Establish high-impact external partnerships for research and education, advancing the Centre’s global reach.
Objective 3: Amplify the Centre’s influence and LSHTM profile on national and global health policy and practice through targeted visibility and advocacy.
WHO Collaborating Centre
The MARCH Centre is the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Our themes
Our work centres around a life course approach, focusing on critical stages:
Adolescent and young people achieving healthy transitions
Births that are wanted and pregnancies that are safe
Children with a healthy start, optimal growth and development
Spanning all themes is the cross-cutting theme of climate change, which focuses on the intersection of climate change and health outcomes.
Our themes address the interconnectedness of health determinants, emphasising four prominent challenges that impact health: conflict, climate change, the cost-of-living crisis and chronic and emerging communicable diseases, recognising their disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations.
- Research
Our research contributes to knowledge and evidence on health that spans the life course. It focuses on equity, impact and innovative solutions across diverse global contexts.
- Education
Striving to nurture the next generation of research leaders for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, MARCH members support in the organising and delivery of a number of short courses, Master’s courses, intensive modules and research degree study.
- Collaboration
We collaborate across disciplines, including epidemiology, economics, demography and health systems, to address complex health challenges. Many of our studies are multi-country and more than 100 research efforts are intentionally global in reach. Our strength as a research centre comes from juxtaposing high-income and low- and middle-income country research.
We have strong collaborations with partners internally at MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM, MRC/Uganda Virus Research Institute and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and THRU Zim, as well as with global programmes and institutions, fostering a dynamic and equitable approach to research.
- Impact
We are committed to translating research findings into actionable solutions that improve health outcomes. Our work shapes global and national health policies, informs guidelines and practices and contributes to major health initiatives.
Our members have led and contributed to influential global reports, including multiple Lancet series on neonatal health (2014), stillbirth (2011 and 2016) and maternal health (2016 and 2023). Our expertise is widely recognised, with members serving on high-level advisory groups such as the UN STAGE, MoNITOR and UN-IGME-CESG groups.
In the past five years, our members have collectively published over 2000 papers, demonstrating a sustained commitment to generating evidence that makes a real-world impact.
MARCH centre report and strategy 2023 - 2027
By systematically reviewing our current research, compared to global burden we have identified priorities and gaps, setting a vision for the next generation of research and for research leadership across the globe.
