Recent news
August 2011
Innovations needed to save mothers and children worldwide, blog says
August 26, 2011 -- “Six hundred grant proposals recently poured into the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from around the globe. Each had the potential to become the next breakthrough in maternal and infant health—the ultimate aspiration of an international partnership called Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge in Development,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes in a Huffington Post blog.
“Grand Challenges are designed to mobilize the world's brightest thinkers, researchers and entrepreneurs to help break major roadblocks in development,” Shah writes, adding, “The first in a series of Grand Challenges for USAID, Saving Lives at Birth called for groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant mothers and newborns around the time of birth in rural settings.” According to Shah, 77 finalists recently came together for USAID’s DevelopmentXChange “to display their ideas and meet with like-minded problem-solvers, global health experts and development funders.” At the end of the three-day event, 19 finalists with the most promising solutions were announced.
“We know that it is not sufficient to simply develop a single innovation that can save lives. We also have to find ways to deliver these innovations to scale in order have countrywide impact for those in greatest need,” Shah writes, concluding, “If we can achieve this, mothers around the world will be able to deliver safely and newborns will have a healthy start at life.” See the links below for more details.
