UNICEF Ayene 2

Resource: Healthier Pregnancies and Brighter Futures for Mothers and Babies

May 31, 2024

In 2024, ECF partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and Kirk Humanitarian to release a first-of-its kind investment roadmap to reach at least 260 million pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries with MMS by 2030. If fully resourced, the plan laid out would save more than half a million lives, improve birth outcomes for more than five million babies, and prevent anemia in over 15 million pregnant women. At a cost of just over $4 per pregnancy (a total cost of $1.1 billion over seven years), this roadmap would translate to monumental health gains while directing coordinated efforts to strengthen and improve health systems and antenatal care services in parallel.