Survive and Thrive
Survive and Thrive: Professional Associations, Private Sector and Global Health Scholars Saving Mothers, Newborns and Children is a unique and historic global development alliance (GDA) to improve survival rates for women and children around the world. The alliance will mobilize U.S. obstetric, pediatric and midwifery professional associations alongside the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), private sector, and civil society organizations in a first of its kind partnership to improve the quality of facility-based maternal, newborn and child health services to reduce preventable maternal and child deaths.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Nurse-Midwives, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Johnson & Johnson, Laerdal Global Health, NICHD, Jhpiego, Save the Children, and MCHIP have signed on to the partnership initiated by the USAID to increase the availability of high-quality, high-impact maternal, newborn and child health services in health facilities around the world.
To learn more about the alliance, click here.
Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action
The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) was launched Mother’s Day 2011 by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to address the 287,000 maternal deaths and 3.1 million newborn deaths that occur each year. It is a partnership between the USAID, Johnson & Johnson, the United Nations Foundation, BabyCenter, MCHIP and the mHealth Alliance, which also serves as the partnership secretariat.
MAMA subscribers register for the mobile phone service by indicating the expected due date or the birthday of their recently born child, and receive weekly health messages and reminders during the pregnancy and up to the infant’s first birthday. Timed messages include tips on everything from proper nutrition, newborn care, breastfeeding, immunizations, and connections to local health resources.
For more information about MAMA, its free adaptable mobile messages, and how to join the partnership, click here.
Handwashing with Soap
In June 2011, USAID, MCHIP and Unilever-Lifebuoy launched a new partnership to reduce newborn deaths around the world. The Handwashing with Soap GDA promotes handwashing among birth attendants and family members as a key evidence-based strategy to reduce newborn infections.
To learn more about the global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, click here.
mPowering Frontline Health Workers
To harness the power of mobile technology at scale, USAID and the mHealth Alliance joined forces to create the public-private partnership mPowering Frontline Health Workers(mPowering). This innovative partnership is designed to improve maternal and child health by accelerating the use of mobile technology by frontline health workers around the worldwide. The founding members are USAID, UNICEF, mHealth Alliance, Frontline Health Workers Coalition, Qualcomm, Vodafone, Intel, MDG Health Alliance, GlaxoSmithKline and the Praekelt Foundation. They have recently been joined by the following new partners: Accenture Development Partnerships, the Barr Foundation, Dalberg, Futures Group, the Khan Academy, One Million Community Health Workers and World Vision. MCHIP acts as the Partnership Secretariat and is responsible for financial and human resources management and administration for mPowering.
Objectives:
- Build capacity of governments, organizations and individuals to harness the power of mobile technology to strengthen maternal and child health care services delivered by frontline health workers.
- Support scale-up of mHealth applications to improve the skills and performance of frontline health workers in six countries: India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
- Generate evidence and information on the use of mobile technology by frontline health workers to mobilize resources and improve the design of mHealth applications.
Frontline health workers are the first and often only link to health care for millions of families in low- and middle-income countries. Mobile technology, nearly ubiquitous in these countries, offers a revolutionary opportunity to strengthen the capacity of frontline health workers and expand the coverage of critical maternal and child health interventions such as antenatal services, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, essential newborn care, immunization, and early detection and treatment of diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia.
For more information on this partnership, click here.
Helping Babies Breathe
The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) Development Alliance supports countries in expanding high-quality resuscitation services as part of a broader package of essential newborn care. The HBB GDA has served as a platform to improve birth asphyxia management and strengthen ENC in over 40 countries to date. The GDA partners have worked with governments and national stakeholders to support the development of national newborn resuscitation strategies, coordinate training activities, and strengthen systems including quality improvement, national health information systems, and procurement of resuscitation equipment.
The Alliance is a public-private partnership of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), USAID, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Save the Children, Laerdal Global Health, Johnson & Johnson, Latter-day Saint Charities, Catholic Medical Missions, Earth Institute/Columbia University, International Pediatric Association, and USAID implementing partners (including MCHIP).
To learn more about Helping Babies Breathe, click here.