THE CHALLENGEMothers are often considered the anchors of our society, yet women in low-resource countries and communities often lack access to safe, equitable, and quality maternal and infant healthcare. According to the
most recent data, over 800 women die each day from preventable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. For each of those, an additional 20 to 30 women suffer delivery-related injuries, infections, and disabilities. Meanwhile, in 2019, approximately 5.2 million children under the age of five died—the majority from preventable and treatable causes, such as birth asphyxia, pneumonia, congenital anomalies, diarrhea, and malaria. Too often, access to maternal and infant healthcare is determined by location, socio-economic status, and race. Inadequate maternal healthcare can result in undetected, severe complications for both the mother and child—the majority of which are preventable through timely intervention, treatment, and adequate care.
Improving maternal and infant health outcomes is a global priority under Sustainable Global Development (SDG) 3: to ensure good health and well-being for all. Despite significant progress in the last decade, achieving SDG 3 by 2030 will not be possible if we do not prioritize marginalized communities. It is in this spirit that this Award calls for solutions that are grounded in and led by communities most proximate to the challenges in order to advance equitable maternal and infant health outcomes.
THE SOLUTION
The Maternal & Infant Health Award seeks bold solutions that will improve and accelerate equitable maternal and infant health outcomes among marginalized communities across the globe. Organizations from around the world are encouraged to apply. Competitive proposals will offer solutions that are community-led, impactful, durable, and, feasible. As we embark on this journey to improve and accelerate equitable maternal and infant health outcomes, we invite you to share your transformative community-led solutions.
THE PROCESS
We have designed a process that is fair, open, and transparent. Once the application period closes, our team will confirm that each submission meets the requirements and rules before advancing first to Peer-to-Peer review and then to the Evaluation Panel review. Once evaluations are complete, the Maternal & Infant Health Award team will review the top-scoring submissions and may request additional information as needed in order to select up to five Finalists who will move on to the next phase.
$1 million will be split among the Finalists who will work with an expert team to strengthen, revise, and resubmit their proposals, host site visits, and share their more detailed plan to implement the proposed solution. The $9 million grant will be given to one of the Finalists, who will be named the Maternal & Infant Health Awardee.
Proposed solutions must be led by an
eligible organization and can be international or U.S. based. Strong solutions will be:
Community-Led: Actively shifts the balance of power to local communities, empowers proximate leaders, and fosters community ownership.
Impactful: Addresses root causes and systemic barriers in a manner that significantly alters health outcomes for the communities most impacted by the issue with clear and measurable progress.
Durable: Creates sustainable sources of power, including financial resources, with which to support itself.
Feasible: Lead by a team with skills, capacity, and relationships to implement the proposed strategy or has a plan in place to build the requisite skills or strategic partners.
