USAID: MAMA - New mobile health partnership launched to save lives at birth
Harnessing mobile phone technology to improve maternal and child health
3 MAY 2011 | WASHINGTON, DC — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced a new public-private partnership to improve women’s access to healthcare in the developing world through the use of mobile health technology. The partnership leverages the collective resources of USAID and Johnson & Johnson, with support from the United Nations Foundation, mHealth Alliance and BabyCenter LLC and was developed in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the US Department of State.
Responding to a global challenge
Many women around the world have limited or no access to basic health information required for them to have safe pregnancies and healthy babies. Recognizing the critical importance of health information reaching communities directly, the Saving Lives at Birth Challenge, launched earlier this year, is calling for innovative solutions to address the fact that mothers in resource-poor settings often lack information about what services they need, what they can do, and what a difference it can make to access health care or adopt healthy behaviours.
MAMA will mobilize $10 million over the next three years, working across an initial set of three countries — Bangladesh, India, and South Africa — to help coordinate and increase the impact of existing mobile health programs, provide resources and technical assistance to promising new business models, and build the evidence base on the effective application of mobile technology to improve maternal health.