The private sector has been invited to join the global community in mobilizing support for the world’s first Every Newborn Action Plan. An estimated 2.9 million newborns died in 2012 and a further 2.6 million babies were stillborn. The Plan sets a bold and ambitious target of driving the newborn mortality rate down to 10 deaths for every 1,000 live births by 2035, halving the current rate and effectively ending preventable newborn deaths in a generation.

The Plan, available here will go to the World Health Assembly in May 2014 and once ratified and officially launched in June, governments and partners all over the world will begin implementing its recommendations.

The Every Newborn Action Plan is calling for private sector engagement in 5 strategic areas:

1. Strengthen and invest in care during labour, childbirth, and the first day and week of life;
2.  Improve the quality of maternal and newborn care;
3. Reduce inequities;
4. Harness the power of parents, families and communities; and
5. Count every newborn – measurement, program tracking and accountability.

The second level of detail to these 5 strategic areas frames a very specific set of priorities and interventions that can and should be implemented at a country and regional level. Specifically to mobile, the Plan calls for behaviour change campaigns, the support of health registers, training and quality assurance tools, data surveillance and innovative healthcare financing.

Reason for Optimism

What though is different from this call to action and the hundreds that have preceded it asking for private sector engagement? I would argue that there are a number of inflection points that suggest the correct mix of political, financial, technological and socio-economic drivers to ensure success.

While world leaders debate the post 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) agenda, there is an urgency to increase efforts to close the gap on the three health goals that are unlikely to be met by 2015. Of the more than US 40bn committed since 2010 to the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy, less than 30% has actually been spent and it’s a name and shame to the finish line to see who will honour those commitments. The Partner’s Forum, to be hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa in June/July 2014, promises to be a tipping point for Governments, policy makers, development organisations, civil society and private companies to leverage the platform to announce to the world their ambitious goals over the next 18months. At that meeting we’re also expecting the release of the latest maternal mortality reduction figures and with Governments being forced to do more with less, we expect to see an increasingly favourable investment landscape for private sector to provide much needed resources and skills.

The Role of Mobile

The role of mobile in this environment cannot be overstated. According to the GSMA mHealth Tracker, there are more than 300 services that are being led by mobile operators. We expect these numbers to almost double in our next survey and to begin seeing the scientific evidence of impact and sustainability. The GSMA is excited to be working with member organisations like Facebook, Samsung, MTN, Vodafone, Airtel, Etisalat and others across Africa in developing disruptive health intervention strategies and partnerships. We look forward to Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona where we will be chairing a meeting between member organisations to develop solutions specifically aimed at the 5 Every Newborn Action Plan strategic areas. Expect to see regional initiatives that create the communication, technical and commercial channels for the goals of the Plan to be achieved.

Follow us on @GSMAm4d for updates throughout Mobile World Congress and in the run-up to the Partners Forum.

For more information on the GSMA Mobile for Development mHealth, please contact us on [email protected]. For information on various mHealth initiatives, click here. For more information on GSMA mHealth resources, click here.