Alliance seeks innovative solutions to reduce maternal-fetal mortality

The US Agency for International Development, the government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and The World Bank announced a partnership today that is designed to seek innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in rural, low-resource settings.

At a media event in Washington, D.C., US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah, MD, Melinda Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others addressed the critical need to increase access to medical care shortly after birth and the need for innovations that go beyond conventional approaches.

The speakers said during the next 5 years, the partners aim to invest at least $50 million in projects that develop new technologies to reduce maternal-fetal morbidity and mortality.

“To make advances in maternal and newborn health, our real opportunity lies in harnessing the power of innovation — scientific, technological and behavioral — to build a continuum of invention from bench to bush,” Shah said. “Innovations in products and the platforms we use to deliver them will allow us to expand our reach to women who will likely never set foot inside a hospital.”

Many of the speakers said the first 2 days of birth remain the most dangerous for the mother and child, with some 140,000 women and 1.6 million neonates dying during that critical time.

Currently, a pregnant African woman is 135 times more likely to die during childbirth than some of her Western counterparts. The goal of “Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development” is to change the tide on this staggering statistic in Africa and across all regions. The speakers said USAID programs, such as “health huts,” have been set up in African countries and have enabled many women to get access to needed medications and their babies access to life-saving vaccines.

“We must partner to develop new technologies and seek new ways of delivering solutions to women and children who need them most,” Gates said during the media event. “This initiative will speed up progress we’re already making — and will lead to new kinds of progress that we have yet to conceive.”

Clinton told those in attendance at the event that new ideas are needed. The speakers urged applicants to apply for funding in three main areas: (1) developing new technologies; (2) creating more reliable and efficient ways to deliver health services; and (3) engaging communities in novel ways and furthering understanding of the benefits to both mother and child when they receive health care at the time of birth.

Applications must be submitted by April 29.

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