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The most recent blog series from Healthy Newborn Network explores the role and potential of technological innovation to improve maternal and newborn survival. The multi-week series will bring together a host of experts and advocates from around the world to address ways of creating and accelerating real change on the ground and improve the health and lives of women and newborns in low-resource settings. It will be published over the next 2-3 weeks, and will include an overview of the current status of these trends, a discussion around what is needed to advance technology and close the gap for the poorest, and highlight the vision and opportunities for innovation through several country examples.

The MANDATE blog is located here: http://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/blog/mandate-mobilizing-innovations-maternal-and-neonatal-health

At the 2011 mHealth Summit, the Innovation Working Group, part of the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child effort, and the mHealth Alliance announced the recipients of eight catalytic grants for mobile health (mHealth) programs. The grants, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), are designed to identify and foster innovative uses of mobile technology to advance maternal and newborn health, with a special focus on growing programs with sustainable financing models and early indications of impact.

The grants will help organizations working on mobile health projects in low-income countries to share knowledge, improve management, and improve evaluation design across projects, sectors, and countries. “Each of the eight recipient initiatives has demonstrated innovative mobile technology solutions to obstacles in health and healthcare practices,” said Patty Mechael, Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance. “From providing maternal and newborn health information via mobile phones to building technology that supports clinical decision making, these initiatives all focus helping the world’s most vulnerable populations lead a healthier life.”

Congratulations to the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Dimagi, D-Tree International, Grameen Foundation, International Relief and Development - Pakistan, Novartis Foundation, Rwanda Ministry of Health and Cell-Life.

Every Woman Every Child: www.everywomaneverychild.org

More than 98 percent of maternal and neonatal deaths occur in low-resource settings. Strategies to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths need to incorporate improving access to appropriate curative and preventive interventions, especially in home and community settings, where over half of the more than 60 million births per year occur.

As part of an effort to improve maternal and neonatal health care in low-resource countries, RTI International has developed a web-based tool to objectively assess the impact of new medical technologies on maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it will invest US $35 million in grants to expand the pipeline of groundbreaking ideas that can help women and children live more prosperous and healthy lives. The press release is available here.

The funding, announced at the annual Grand Challenges Meeting in Delhi, India, will support two new Grand Challenges in Global Health grant programs:

Preventing Preterm Birth, managed in partnership with the Global Alliance for the Prevention of Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), an initiative of Seattle Children's, will invest US $20 million in the discovery and development of interventions to prevent preterm birth and stillbirth by limiting infection and improving nutrition. For more information, please visit  http://www.gapps.org/healthybirth

Discover New Ways to Achieve Healthy Growth will invest US $15 million in research to discover the causes of growth faltering during the first 1,000 days of life and to identify effective and affordable interventions to promote healthy growth. To learn more, please visit http://www.grandchallenges.org/GrantOpportunities/Pages/healthygrowth.aspx.