Project profile — Innovation Platform for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

• North of Sahara, regional (3.76%)
• South of Sahara, regional (56.42%)
• Africa, regional (2.39%)
• West Indies, regional (4.70%)
• North and Central America, regional (4.70%)
• South America, regional (4.70%)
• America, regional (1.79%)
• Middle East, regional (3.76%)
• Asia, regional (15.90%)
• Oceania, regional (1.88%)

• Health policy and administrative management:
Health policy and administrative management (12110) (10.00%)
Medical education/training (12181) (10.00%)
Medical research (12182) (10.00%)
Medical services (12191) (10.00%)
• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (25.00%)
Basic nutrition (12240) (10.00%)
Infectious disease control (12250) (10.00%)
Health education (12261) (10.00%)
• Water And Sanitation: Basic sanitation (14032) (5.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (principal objective)
• Youth Issues (principal objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (significant objective)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The project aims to improve the lives of women, newborns and children under the age of five living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by providing funding and technical support to innovators who have identified solutions to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) challenges. The project focuses on the first two phases of Grand Challenges Canada’s (GCC) innovation platform. In the first phase, GCC provides small grants to innovators to conduct research and develop promising innovative ideas to address MNCH challenges. The second phase includes testing and piloting innovations, developing strategic partnerships, leveraging private sector funding and know-how and business and marketing plans to enable their further development. In this phase, funding is awarded to Canadian and LMIC innovators who have demonstrated their innovation works and can be prepared for take up by the private sector, international organizations and LMIC governments. Over 300 innovations in the first phase and up to 100 innovations in the second phase will be implemented over 10 years.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) reduced mortality and morbidity among target populations; and (2) improved health outcomes arising from innovative health products and/or services for beneficiaries, communities and health providers in low and middle income countries, with a focus on the poorest of the poor.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2023) include: (1) funding for 324 innovations in the proof-of-concept phase in support of maternal, newborn and child health, as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights; (2) support for 141 proven innovations for deployment on a larger scale, i.e. to test their implementation in progressively larger geographical areas and to help proven innovations achieve the desired results; (3) 20.7 million women, children and adolescents are using innovative health products and services thanks to these innovations, 46% of which are led by women and 75% of which are implemented in low- and middle-income countries; (4) 24,887 lives saved and 7.6 million lives improved as a result of this project through improved access to early childhood development services for 2.7 million children under the age of five, access to better essential health care for 1.4 million women and children, and prevention and treatment of communicable diseases for 3.3 million women and children. The initiative has also improved the health of 280,000 women and girls through access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services; and (5) leveraging $2.46 from other investors for their innovations for every dollar invested by Global Affairs Canada.

• Proactive disclosure