Addressing Global Health, Development, and Social Inequalities through Research and Policy Analyses: The International Journal of MCH and AIDS

to document, and shine the light on the myriads of global health issues that debilitate developing countries. Although the focus of IJMA is on the social determinants of health and disease as well as on the disparities in the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases affecting infants, children, women, adults, and families in developing countries, we would like to encourage our fellow researchers and policy makers in both the developing and developed countries to consider submitting work that examines cross-national variations in heath and social inequalities. Such a global focus allows us to identify and understand social, structural, developmental, and health policy determinants underlying health inequalities between nations [1, 2]. Global assessment of health and socioeconomic patterns reaffirms the role of broader societal-level factors such as human development, gender inequality, gross national product, income inequality, and healthcare infrastructure as the fundamental determinants of health inequalities between nations. This is also confirmed by our analysis of the WHO data in Figure 1 that shows a strong negative association between levels of human development and infant and maternal mortality rates (γ >-0.85) [3]. Focusing on socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical inequalities within a developing Almost one year ago, we were on a lunchtime walk in the outskirts of the nation's capital, Washington, DC. Amidst the ruffles of dry leaves, the birds chirruped. Some lawn mowers vibrated as they chewed grasses in this usually quiet neighborhood. As is the unwritten 'rule' for our walks, we joked, we talked about our current projects, our planned work, and the opportunities and the challenges for the future. On this rather chilly day, our discussion somehow veered into how we both can utilize our successful careers to benefit our global ancestry. We had spent our early years in developing countries: Gopal in India, Asia and Romuladus in Nigeria, Africa. As this discussion unveiled, we saw a synchronous passion to give back not only to Asia and Africa but also to the entire developing countries. A few projects came up. After weighing the pros and cons, the idea of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA) was preeminent. We agreed that IJMA was a fertile ground to cultivate a global intellectual coalition to highlight the issues in the hinterlands of developing countries and to offer a platform to offer practical policy suggestions to address these issues. Above all, IJMA's idea went beyond the usual talk about " giving …