Maggie O’Hare, Rachael Barrett, Diana Manianchira, and Ziyaad Surtee, students of the 22/23 MSc Health and Development cohort, published a peer-reviewed journal article on interventions to reduce the effects of air pollution and of extreme heat on maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes in February 2025. When they started their consultancy module, the thought of publishing seemed an incredibly distant dream. In this blog, Ziyaad Surtee reflects on their experience with the consultancy project and how it led to their publication.
We were assigned a project commissioned by partners at the World Health Organization. This project sought to map interventions to prevent the adverse effects of air pollution and extreme heat on maternal, newborn, and child populations.
During the first meeting, we got to know our team members. We all had incredibly varied backgrounds. Maggie had a background in public health, Rachael had experience with reviews during her work with the UN and Diana had been working with a company that merged technology and health. As a medical student with a more clinical background, I contributed a patient-oriented view on the use of medical interventions. It was encouraging to see that we all had varied skills and shared a belief in the importance of the project. The entire process of the consultancy project was mapped out by our mentor Professor Ernestina Coast, from the LSE ID Department.
After the initialization of the project, we started working together to identify the terms of reference set out by our client. This was so that when we met the client, we felt informed about what we had agreed to do. From the outset, the client shared our enthusiasm, expressing a strong interest in eventually having the work published.
Having completed our literature review, we employed thematic analysis to explore common interventions used to tackle extreme heat and air pollution’s impacts on maternal, newborn and child health. It was interesting to note similarities, differences and gaps (especially between high-income and low-income countries). Notably, we observed that most interventions addressing air pollution were concentrated in the Global North and primarily focused on child health. With climate change predominantly affecting the Global South, however, our work aims to highlight the glaring inequality that this region faces. This disparity is further exacerbated by the marginalization of indigenous knowledge which, if integrated, could offer valuable, context-specific solutions. Recognising these challenges, we concluded the need for effective and equitable interventions. Here, targeting maternal and newborn populations is key, because early interventions can be most effective.
Beyond this, a great proportion of interventions were related to behavioural change with air purifiers or air conditioning aimed at combatting air pollution and extreme heat. While these measures can be beneficial, they often fail to address systemic issues within healthcare infrastructure. Health systems were largely overlooked, missing the unique opportunity of health workers to improve patient’s health. To bridge this gap, it is essential to incorporate climate change advocacy into healthcare training, ensuring professionals are equipped to address climate-related health risks beyond specific disease. Overall, our research highlights a need for context-specific interventions that are multi-sectoral, achievable and effective for the populations they seek to protect. Moving forward, further research is essential to develop and implement strategies that are both practical and equitable.
After we submitted the project, we had honestly forgotten about the prospect of continuing towards a publication. We had a meeting with the client, Professor Coast, and Dr Strong. Dr Strong was commissioned by the WHO to help write up our work and guide us through the publication process. It was an upfront discussion and Dr Strong explained to us what would come next.
Over the next year or so, we helped with refining numbers and data that had been reviewed by Dr Strong. Moreover, we were tasked with editing various drafts of the final manuscript to ensure that it was aligned with our report. After a lot of hard work, in February 2025, we were relieved when the manuscript was finally published.
Three years on from starting the consultancy project in 2022, our work paid off with the report being transformed into an article. All of this could not have happened without Professor Coast, Dr Strong, our partners at the WHO (Anayda Portela and Francesca Conway), Kalyani Mohan (who reviewed NGO reports) and of course our student group (Rachael Barrett, Maggie O’Hare and Diana Manianchira).
For anyone starting their consultancy project, we hope that our journey outlined in this blog can show what is possible when there is great collaboration with your team and client.
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Featured image credit: stocksnap.io.
