Product/Service Development

UNICEF, together with the Department of Health (DOH) and PhilHealth collaborated to develop a national health insurance benefit package for prematurity and small babies launched in late 2016. The project seeks to catalyze the readiness of government hospitals to be contracted for the special health financing package.

Atomo is a specialist medical device company that has invented a unique casing for an RDT that incorporates the lancet, transfer of blood and reading of the result into one easy-to-use platform. This makes the Atomo test significantly easier to perform than traditional test strips and enables point-of-care and at-home testing. It dramatically lowers user errors, making it attractive for both at-home testing and usage in medical facilities without the need for highly-trained caregivers.

The low detection and absence of timely treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) due to geographical, and economic barriers and the lack of supplies in the health units, puts at risk the health of women and adolescents during pregnancy and childbirth, endangering the health of the newborn. STI detection and treatment are not delivered by the public health system. Only private health suppliers provide the service but costs are too high and just in the main cities of Honduras.

Le taux de prévalence contraceptive au Mali chez les femmes en union est l'un des plus bas de l'Afrique Subsaharienne. Les besoins non satisfaits en Planification Familiale estimés à 31 % restent élevés et la fécondité de 6,6 enfants par femme est préoccupante face à un taux d'accroissement de la population élevé de 3, 6 %. Le Mali compte parmi les pays où la fréquence du mariage précoce « est la plus grande à l'échelle mondiale » (Walker sept. 2013, 9).

About 86% of women and girls in incarceration places are practicing unhygienic MHM due to economic hindrances on affording hygienic pads; limited knowledge on menstrual hygiene management; lack of private space to change rags/pads, lack of counseling services for adolescent girls who get first time menstruation periods; limited knowledge on sexual reproductive health for both female and male inmates and lack of WASH facilities are still prevailing health and sanitation challenge in prisons.

The project aims to use a Development Impact Bond (DIB) to implement Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), a cost-effective intervention known to save and improve the lives of low birth weight and pre-term infants in low resource settings, in up to 10 hospitals in Cameroon.

With GCC funding, the SPO2 team intends to accomplish the following during its 2-year project period: Prove hypoxemia-specific mortality benefit of their oxygen system across 20 facilities (of differing levels) across Uganda. Provide access to medical oxygen for 960 hypoxemic children who would not otherwise have access, resulting in 50 lives saved. 

The Umbiflow (a continuous wave Doppler ultrasound apparatus) assesses the blood flow in the fetus's umbilical artery and can readily detect placental insufficiency. It is low cost and low level health care providers can be trained to use it; thus large populations of pregnant women can be screened for placental insufficiency and, if managed properly, the stillbirth prevented.

Women and girls in deprived rural communities in Uganda have little or no access to contraception due to financial constraints placed on health, contributing to continued high birth rates, poor socio-economic structures and gender inequality.