Condoms. Breastfeeding. Hand washing. After a decade of ramped-up spending, the donors to global-health programmes are grappling with a thorny issue: why are some health-care interventions that are proven life-savers failing to save as many lives as they should in the field, even after unprecedented investment to support them? The question topped the agenda at a meeting last week of industry executives, researchers, public-health workers and global-health campaigners convened by the Bill & .Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation is looking to enlist insights from the behavioural and social sciences to help in two key areas: helping communities to adopt proven interventions, and scaling these measures up to help more people in poor countries.
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