Gates and Slim Step Up Mesoamerica Health Effort The Chronicle of Philanthropy
go to original October 23, 2015

From left to right: Spain's minister of Health Trinidad Jiménez; Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. (IDB)

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carlos Slim Foundation are preparing to launch the second phase of a cooperative, $170-million effort to improve newborn and maternal health in Mexico and Central America, Reuters writes.

The Salud Mesoamerica program, also supported by Spain, the Inter-American Development Bank, and local governments in the targeted countries, aims to use big data and mobile technology to stop easily preventable deaths of mothers and babies in the poorest parts of the region.

Surveys conducted as part of the initiative showed malnutrition and lack of access to health services are as bad in pockets of Central America as in the poorest parts of Africa. Tapping into an aid trend, Salud Mesoamerica uses independently collected data to measure local achievements in prenatal care, with funding conditional on the results.

See the original at The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Related: Melinda Gates: Progress Made, But Work to Do in Maternal, Newborn Health (Associated Press)

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