PRB Wins $30-million Award from USAID for Project to Accelerate Reductions in Global Maternal and Child Deaths

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Population Reference Bureau (PRB) today announced it has been awarded a five-year, $30-million cooperative agreement from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to accelerate the reduction of preventable child and maternal deaths globally. The new project, MOMENTUM 2C, focuses on monitoring and evaluation, innovation and adaptive learning, knowledge management and strategic communications. 

MOMENTUM 2C is part of a suite of awards that build the capacity of national and local partners in low- and middle-income countries to identify and scale-up maternal, neonatal and child health interventions with the greatest impact on saving lives. PRB will lead a team that includes JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc., and Ariadne Labs, the innovation center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, as core partners.

"In the past two decades, the world has seen tremendous improvement in the health of women and children. MOMENTUM 2C will help accelerate future improvements by ensuring information generated by the MOMENTUM suite of awards reaches the right people at the right times in the right formats to inform good decisions," said Barbara Seligman, MOMENTUM 2C project director and PRB vice president for International Programs. "The MOMENTUM 2C team combines expertise in translating data to propel action, with excellence in strengthening developing-country health monitoring and evaluation systems and leadership in health innovation and adaptive learning."

Globally, 295,000 mothers and 5.3 million children under age 5 die each year, mostly from preventable causes. And up to 1 million children die on their first day of life. Reducing these deaths will require identifying gaps and proven interventions that provide accessible, reliable and affordable services that respond to the needs of communities.

"JSI is honored to join the PRB-led MOMENTUM 2C team. We're excited about this project because we know that quality information contributes to programmatic success, global learning and health system innovation. We look forward to playing a role in making sure USAID and the many country partners and implementing agencies across the MOMENTUM awards have the data they need to strengthen maternal, reproductive, newborn, and child health care and voluntary family planning services," said Carolyn Hart, vice president of JSI's International Division.

"Ariadne Labs is honored to be a part of the MOMENTUM project. The goals of MOMENTUM align squarely with our mission to save lives and reduce suffering by creating scalable solutions that improve health care delivery. We look forward to working with these world-class partners as together we learn about and improve health throughout the world," said Evan M. Benjamin, chief medical officer of Ariadne Labs.

About Population Reference Bureau (PRB) 
PRB informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. Find out more at www.prb.org. Follow us on Twitter @PRBdata. 

About JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc.
JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., is a public health research organization dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities throughout the world. Our mission is to improve the health of underserved people and communities and to provide a place where people of passion and commitment can pursue this cause. For more information, visit www.jsi.com and follow @JSIHealth.

About Ariadne Labs
Ariadne Labs is a global leader in health systems innovation. A joint center at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Ariadne Labs develops simple, scalable solutions that dramatically improve the delivery of health care at critical moments to save lives and reduce suffering. Our vision is for health systems to deliver the best possible care for every patient, everywhere, every time. 

Contact: Liselle Yorke, PRB
[email protected] 
202-939-5463

SOURCE Population Reference Bureau