Maternal, newborn, and child health

It’s no secret in global health: we already know how to save the lives of women and children. We have at hand innovations that target the leading killers of mothers and their babies—innovations that could help us meet Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, which call for a marked decrease in maternal and child deaths by 2015.

When Njabulo was born, his mother gave him the perfect food—breast milk. But she died when he was just two months old, leaving the infant without the source of nutrients he so needed and the antibodies to keep him free from illness. Njabulo was in dire shape when he was placed in a transition home for HIV-exposed infants. Fortunately, the home was one of the few places in South Africa with a human milk bank. Fed donated mother’s milk, the tiny infant began to thrive.

Ali Maow Maalin thought the shot might hurt, so he skipped smallpox  vaccination. Maalin, the last member of the general public to get the disease before its elimination, eventually recovered. He spent the rest of his life helping people in his native Somalia get vaccinated against another scourge that’s now on the cusp of elimination: polio.

How do we identify the most promising technologies for the women who need them most? Our team of maternal health experts, business analysts, and product developers created a data-driven approach to decision-making.