By Our Reporter
GSK and Save the Children have launched their fourth annual US$ 1 million Healthcare Innovation Award, which rewards innovations in healthcare that help to reduce child deaths in developing countries and have the potential to reach even more children. Ugandan-based Living Goods won part of the prize fund in 2014 for their cost-effective, entrepreneurial community health promoter program. This year, until 7th September, Ugandan organizations can once again nominate innovative healthcare approaches they have implemented. These innovations must have resulted in tangible improvements to under-5 child survival, be sustainable and have the scope to be scaled-up and replicated.
The Award is one of a number of initiatives from GSK and Save the Children’s five-year partnership, which combines the two organizations’ expertise and skills with the aim to help save one million children’s lives. Since 2013, more than a dozen inventive approaches – from a breast milk pasteurization device to an affordable diarrhoea treatment kit – have been recognized through the Award. This year, as well as recognizing approaches that have helped reduce child deaths, the Award will give special attention to innovations that focus on the hardest-to-reach children.
Alfred Wise, the Living Goods Country Director said, “Winning the Healthcare Innovation Award advanced our ability to reach more mothers and children in communities across Uganda. We have a stronger relationship with the Ministry of Health following meeting with them at the Award ceremony and there is an even greater awareness and acceptance of our services in the communities where we work.
