Zubia Mumtaz’s work is centered in the area of global maternal and reproductive health, with a focus on developing innovative solutions and programs to address the problem of high maternal mortality in low income countries with fragile health systems. Established in Pakistan and Malawi, her research program addresses three inter-related dimensions: 1) exploring how multiple and interlocking axis of inequity - gender, poverty, and social exclusion - converge to place some groups of women in socially marginalized positions; 2) how these inequities are related to the chronic nature of marginalized women's excessive risk of reproductive health morbidity and mortality and 3) assessing performance of health systems in their delivery of maternal/reproductive health services. In partnerships with governments and non-governmental organizations, she conducts implementation research to assess quality of services (of both community-based programs and facility-based), coverage, and the challenges of scaling up delivery of services, especially to remote, rural populations.