Innovations to save mothers' and children's lives

Six finalists selected following the Malawi Call for Ideas which generated more than 6,000 entries. View the Malawi video by selecting the button on the right.
In 2009, Concern Worldwide US received a five-year, $41 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development and field testing of bold and inventive ways to overcome barriers to delivering proven maternal, newborn, and child health solutions in six countries.
Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health or Innovations in short, commenced operations in Malawi, India, and Sierra Leone in 2009. These countries currently face major obstacles to achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health. Proven health interventions already exist that have the potential to save millions of lives. The challenge is to effectively deliver these interventions so as to reach all the mothers and children who need them most.
Innovations will generate hundreds of bold, new ideas from new, often unheard voices with untapped potential. From these, "breakthrough" ideas will be selected for further development, field implementation and evaluation. The goal is for at least two of these ideas to result in significant increases in maternal, newborn and child health coverage.
Innovations will reach out to a broad spectrum of people - rural communities, mothers, young people, entrepreneurs, traders, midwives, mid-level and junior health workers, academia, civil society, the private sector, religious groups and other community members.
"Even the most effective health interventions can only save lives if they reach the people who need them" says Jaime Sepúlveda, Director of the Integrated Health Solutions Development programme at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Concern Worldwide's commitment to seeking innovation from diverse, non-traditional sources will be a key ingredient in the success of this programme."

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