Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and the World Bank has launched the “Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development,” which is calling for groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, rural communities around the time of childbirth.

NGOs, for-profit companies, academic/medical research institutions, faith-based organizations, civic groups and foundations can submit innovative ideas that can leapfrog conventional approaches leading to substantial and sustainable progress against maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths at community level.

There are three main domains under which the innovative ideas can be proposed:

•        Science & technology;

•        Service delivery; and

•        Demand-side innovation that empowers pregnant women and their families to practice healthy behaviors and be aware of and access health care during pregnancy, childbirth and the early postnatal period, especially the first two days after birth.

Selected ideas will be supported through two funding streams:

•        Seed Funds to demonstrate proof of concept and

•        Transition Funds to transition successful innovations toward scale up.

There are opportunities for shared learning and collaboration between innovators, funders and other public health experts including participation by all finalists in the Development Exchange July 27-29, 2011 in Washington, DC and participation by awardees in annual Grand Challenges meetings hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and other partners.

The closing date to submit applications is 29 April 2011. For more information, visit this link or search grants.gov by funding opportunity number for “RFA-OAA-11-000006″