The 10th annual GPPN Conference, hosted by the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs, featured students’ solution-oriented ideas and prototypes to address public policy challenges identified by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To participate, each GPPN member school carefully selected up to five student teams to present their projects and compete for the GPPN prize. The result: 32 teams from around the world met in Paris to showcase their ideas on how to solve some of the most pressing global challenges of today. 

In the video below, a team of students from LSE’s Master of Public Administration degree pitch their ideas behind the Mobile Midwife Programme. This group was selected as one of the six GPPN finalists.

The Mobile Midwife Programme (MMP) combines a medical toolkit with a mobile application that stores patient information, provides basic maternal health care information, and connects community health workers to a virtual network of qualified doctors. This intervention is designed to address accessibility constraints to quality health care and the shortage of human resources needed to tackle maternal and neonatal mortality in developing countries.

Meet the team

Meredith Kozak gained her bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and French from of The Ohio State University in 2012. Upon graduation, she worked in Senegal for two years as a Preventative Health Educator for the United States Peace Corps. While working in Senegal, she collaborated with community health workers to design and implement malaria prevention, maternal and child health, and WASH programming. Witnessing the changes a group of dedicated community members can effect, lead Meredith to seek a Master of Public Administration at The London School of Economics. She hopes to work in reproductive health policy advocacy after completing her MPA.

Gabriela Smarrelli gained her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico of Peru in 2012. Prior to the MPA, she worked for four years with an economic consultancy firm in Peru – Apoyo Consultoria – on topics related to the formulation and implementation of policy reforms and the evaluation social programs. Through this experience, she conducted extensive fieldwork and witnessed, first-hand, the economic situation Peruvians live in and the main limitations of the government to meet their demands. In 2016, she worked at Oxford Policy Management on topics related to early childhood development in Timor-Leste. After the MPA, she aims to do a PhD and work in international development, particularly in health policy.

Andrea Villareal gained her bachelor’s degree in Economics from The Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (PUCE) in 2010. Subsequently, she completed a MSc in Finance and Risk Management at Universidad Andina. Prior to the MPA, she worked as an Economic Researcher at PUCE on projects related to the fiscal sustainability of municipalities. She also collaborated as the National Director of Decentralised Governments at the Financial Ministry of Ecuador where she gained experience monitoring and evaluating the subnational fiscal performance. In 2016, Andrea worked for the Latin America Department at The Institute of International Finance conducting a macroeconomic data analysis of the region. She hopes to work on economic policy analysis focusing on macroeconomic areas.

This blog post was originally posted on the GPPN blog.