Saving Lives at Birth
What does a garage mechanic from Argentina, a team of students from North Carolina, and a group of doctors in Kenya have in common? They are all pushing the boundaries of innovation to save the lives of women and newborns during their most vulnerable hours — from the time of labor to the 48 hours […]
Making Health Care Possible in the Most Impossible Place
Possible Health is a non-profit tackling the issue of health care in a very challenging environment. Based in a rural area of Nepal, Possible Health’s mission is to prove that it is possible to deliver high quality health care services at a very low cost. Mark Arnoldy, 27, founder of Possible Health, is a serial […]
Making health care possible in the world’s most impossible place
Possible Health is a non-profit tackling the issue of health care in a very challenging environment. Based in a rural area of Nepal, Possible Health’s mission is to prove that it is possible to deliver high quality health care services at a very low cost. Mark Arnoldy, 27, founder of Possible Health, is a serial […]
How Companies are Turning Food Losses into Gains
Experts in global food systems cite the need to expand production in order to feed the world’s growing population. However, just as important is the need to more effectively process and distribute the food we already grow. Here are five facts on the present status of food loss around the globe, and how companies and […]
GSK and Save The Children Healthcare Innovation Award
The GSK and Save the Children Healthcare Innovation Award is back, do you know of an innovative solution that’s helping to save the lives of young children in developing countries? Then GSK and Save the Children want to hear about it. A year ago in Malawi, a tiny baby was born prematurely at seven months, […]
Can Good Research Promote More Investment In Nutrition?
The nutrition sector is at a critical point in its development. Scientists and economists are in agreement nutrition is critical to good health and economic growth. New platforms like the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, have seen more than 50 national governments develop nutrition strategies, and new pledges to nutrition were announced at the Nutrition […]
Seeking Innovative Ideas to Improve Eye Health Globally
Do you have an innovative idea that could improve eye health worldwide? The deadline for applications for the eXcellence in Ophthalmology Vision Award (XOVA) 2014 (www.xovaprogram.org) is 30 June 2014. The XOVA is a scheme, sponsored by Alcon and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, that provides funding to support initiatives aiming to address unmet needs in eye care. […]
Innovations In Privately Delivered MNCH Care: Exploring The Evidence Behind Emerging Practices
This analysis is excerpted froma research brief produced by the T-HOPE Group at the University of Toronto in partnership with CHMI. Organizations are using innovative delivery and financing approaches to improve access to quality healthcare for mothers and children – through private sector mechanisms. Of the 45 million home births that occur annually, the majority […]
Opening Up Innovation To Defeat Diseases Of Poverty
Defeating disease can not only help people live healthier lives, but more prosperous lives too. You need only look at deworming to see this. Intestinal worms cause anaemia, stunting and malnutrition among children living in developing countries. But effective treatment can have a profound effect. A study in Kenya showed that children treated for intestinal […]
Who Are The Innovators?
Innovation is alive and well among entrepreneurs – but not so much where you’d expect. Take Silicon Valley, for example – a place long considered virtually synonymous with innovation. Twelve companies originating from that hotbed of invention during the past decade have achieved market valuations of $1 billion or more, presumably marking them as the […]
Living Goods: Improving Health, Improving Incomes
Mary is a typical mother living in a rural Ugandan village. She has two options when one of her four children falls sick. Her first and allegedly cheapest option is walking long distances to a public facility, where she will spend hours waiting in the heat and in many cases find that free treatments are […]
Social Innovators: Healthy Soil Makes Healthy People
Howard Buffett’s recent book, 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, shares two interrelated insights: that a farmer gets to produce around 40 annual harvests in her lifetime, and that living soils play an absolutely essential role in her and future generations’ abilities increase that harvest each year. Will a small farmer in Africa […]
Deliver Nutrition Through Agricultural Platforms
Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition A roadmap for aligning investment in the agricultural and nutrition sectors in Tanzania has been launched to help businesses prioritize engagement in nutrition. The roadmap, which was developed at the request of the Tanzanian Government and co-developed by GAIN and the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) […]
Coca-Cola Gets Everywhere. Medicines Don’t. Why?
I am hugely exciting about a new partnership between ColaLife and International Development Enterprises which aims to answer this question. Together we are investigating the best ways to take ColaLife’s award winning anti-diarrhoea kit – Kit Yamoyo, the ‘Kit of Life’ – to scale across Zambia and potentially across the world. We have set an […]
World Gold Council – Combatting Malaria
In a film, Gold for Health: Ghana Spotlight, released today, the World Gold Council is highlighting the role gold, and the gold mining industry, can play in the prevention of diseases such as malaria. The World Gold Council is the market development organisation for the gold industry, and our members are 21 of the world’s […]
Can One Village Make a Difference?
When we launched our handwashing programmes in March 2013 in Thesgora, a village in Madhya Pradesh, India, which has one of the highest diarrhoea rates in the country, some people questioned our approach: “What’s the point of helping just one small village? What does this achieve when the biggest issue in global development today is […]
Uniting to Combat Nelegeted Tropical Diseases
This year, World Health Day is shining a light on the devastating impact of vector-borne diseases. These diseases cause more than one million deaths each year and leave hundreds of millions more debilitated, disfigured, blind or just too sick to work or go to school due to their long-term effects. For us at Legatum, our […]
Making a Difference in Eye Care
Around 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization[i]. Although eye care professionals frequently dedicate their time to visit developing countries and help the local populations, the effects are not long-lasting as their skills often leave with them. The eXcellence in Ophthalmology Vision Award (XOVA), sponsored by […]
Why Does Healthcare Need ‘Intrapreneurs’?
When most of us think about entrepreneurs, a certain image springs to mind. It is of an individual pursuing their big idea outside of the confines of a large business; of an intrepid individual heading into the ‘Dragon’s Den’ or making their fortune in Silicon Valley. But, that kind of disruptive innovation is not limited […]
The Power of Water and Soap
Sometimes in seeking solutions to big challenges, the simple things can be taken for granted. I recall a meeting I attended several years ago. Johnson & Johnson’s Contribution Committee for Africa convened in Lusaka, Zambia to decide what strategies we would pursue to improve health care for the needy in Africa. It is an exotic […]