Almost 99% of the death cases occur in the developing countries.
The death of millions of children could be prevented by improving the access to antibiotics, sterile blades and clean childbirth kits.
The grant will be used for two initiatives:
Save the children for newborn health projects in 18 developing countries ($60 million)
Path to support 17 newborn and maternal health projects in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, India ($24.3 million)
Saving newborn lives initiative started in 2000 and it already helped to ensure access to skilled midwife care, tetanus immunisation and education about proper hygiene, warmth, and breastfeeding. This initiative has a huge impact on health: e.g. the newborn death from tetanus infection in Pakistan has been cut in half. The new six-year grant will concentrate on the following activities:
identifying best strategies for reducing newborn illness and wise use of resources in different settings.
integrating the newborn care in the existing health programmes.
developing new tools such as antiseptics and moisturizers to fight with severe infections and prematurity problems.
overcoming lack of resources to newborn care.
The Path initiative will use a five-year grant for:
improving access to skilled birth home visits or medical facilities.
building network of community health workers.
developing programmes that will cover emergency care costs.
establishing links between communities to share experience and best practice.
The Gates Foundation called on governments and other funds to increase their financial support for newborn health programmes. As Melinda Gates said: ¨Saving the life of a newborn is a global investment with the greatest profit¨.
For more information:
Call for proposals for a European Global Health Network
WHO focuses on health of mothers and children
