PIP: According to Deborah Maine, Director of the Prevention of Maternal Mortality (PMM) Program at Columbia University, Center for Population and Family Health, the worsening economic situation in Africa is presenting obstacles to the efforts of 11 multidisciplinary teams in Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone (the PMM Network). Carnegie Corporation provides separate funding to each team for operations research and preventive programs. Teams identify problems, and design and evaluate interventions. While a supply of well-trained, enthusiastic professionals in collaborative institutions is available, devaluations have lowered salaries. Program activities, using direct problem solving approach, include: 1) stimulating efforts to improve the quality of care in hospitals (especially, by reducing waiting times); 2) organizing blood donors' associations and improving blood banks at maternity clinics and small hospitals; 3) encouraging transport workers to organize emergency transportation for pregnant women who develop complications; and 4) conducting information campaigns to improve knowledge of obstetric complications through community meetings. The African teams have worked together since 1988.