Norway grants $9.9M to mHealth Alliance for maternal health
Sailas Nyareza
Norway grants $9.9M to mHealth Alliance for maternal health
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) has committed $9.9 million to the mHealth Alliance to help it create grant competitions for innovative mobile health services that aim to improve women and children’s health. Maternal health has been an area of focus for mHealth services: Text4Baby, a free, SMS-based health service for new and expectant mothers is perhaps one of the most well-known mobile health services to launch in the US.
The funds will help the mHealth Alliance run the program for three years during which the mHealth Alliance, which is hosted by the United Nations Foundation, will award grants to mobile health organizations that demonstrate a “capacity to scale up evidence-based mHealth interventions that improve health outcomes,” the organizations wrote in a press release.
“Some of the poorest countries are making significant reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality,” stated Tore Godal, co-chair of the Innovative Working Group and Special Advisor for Global Health to the Prime Minister of Norway. “But there is still much work to be done. The use of mobile technology demonstrates how innovation creates unprecedented potential for scale-up. With two out of three mobile users living in developing countries, these grants are critical to global health and development – important parts of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those related to women.”
Full text at http://mobihealthnews.com/16577/norway-grants-9-9m-to-mhealth-alliance-for-maternal-health/
About the mHealth Alliance
The mHealth Alliance champions the use of mobile technologies to improve health throughout the world. Working with diverse partners to integrate mHealth into multiple sectors, the Alliance serves as a convener for the mHealth community to overcome common challenges by sharing tools, knowledge, experience, and lessons learned. The mHealth Alliance advocates for more and better quality research and evaluation to advance the evidence base; seeks to build capacity among health and industry decision-makers, managers, and practitioners; promotes sustainable business models; and supports systems integration by advocating for standardization and interoperability of mHealth platforms. The mHealth Alliance also hosts HUB (Health Unbound), a global online community for resource sharing and collaborative solution generation. Hosted by the United Nations Foundation, and founded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Vodafone Foundation, and UN Foundation, the Alliance now also includes HP, the GSM Association, and Norad among its founding partners. For more information, visit http://www.mhealthalliance.org.