Innovating to Save Children’s Lives
From AI to machine learning, addressing preventable causes of child mortality with tech
The first five years of a child’s life are marked by a celebration of ‘firsts’—the first birthday, first tooth, first step, and first word. Caregivers know the feeling, from conception to birth and even long after, of watching and waiting for a child to reach milestone after milestone as confirmation of good health, well-being, and development.
Anyone who has ever been approached by a medical specialist and told the familiar phrase, ‘there’s good news and bad news’, will understand the sense of ambivalence when global health experts announced the number of children who died before their fifth birthday reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022.
The bad news is, millions of children never live to see their fifth birthday. Some are robbed of their first breath, and for others it's painful and brief. Pneumonia, preterm births, diarrhoea, malaria, and complications at birth are some of the common causes of childhood mortality – each one preventable and treatable. The good news? More children than ever are surviving their early years. Only a few decades ago, as many as 12.7 million children and over half a million new mothers died every year.
The response? Muted celebrations and doubling of efforts amid renewed confidence that this could be the first of many reports marking progress in improving the rate of child survival globally.
From the first drone delivered vaccines and medical supplies to remote communities, to the first crypto fund within the UN which went on to invest in a blockchain solution improving food and vaccine delivery, innovation paves the way to discovering approaches, technologies and initiatives that help address challenges like childhood mortality.
There’s no real threat of technological advancement replacing the brilliant humans who help save lives: midwives who usher children safely into the world, health workers who vaccinate children and protect them against deadly diseases, and health workers who go door-to-door providing health and nutrition support for children. However, around the world, these professionals experience varying degrees of success in their mission to save lives.
The geographical coordinates of where a child is born should not determine whether they are given a birth and death certificate within the first five years of life. While this is true for millions of children today, it doesn’t have to be for coming generations.
Studies show that child deaths in the highest-risk countries could drop substantially if community-based life-saving interventions could reach every child, everywhere.
When public and private sectors align to unlock the potential of innovation to accelerate progress, such interventions can reach those most in need.
In close partnership with Arm, Takeda, Ethereum Foundation and the government of Finland, the UNICEF Venture Fund invests in breakthrough technological solutions with the potential to deliver transformative results.
The Fund, a unique model for equity and inclusivity in frontier tech for social impact, makes equity-free financial and mentoring investments in open-source solutions that have the potential to accelerate results for children, with an intentional lens on entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
Ranging from integrated registries for frontline health workers to AI-based tools for disease detection, the Fund’s portfolio of healthcare solutions has reached over 25 million children, addressing malnutrition, prescription tracking, and population health management.
In recent years, frontier technology, pioneered by a diversity of startups based in UNICEF programme countries and supported by the UNICEF Venture fund show promising results to transform pediatric health, including:
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Dronfies, a pioneering effort in Latin America for medical drone delivery services, saw 10 newborns receive drone-delivered breastmilk at its initial use—the first of many.
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Bebbo, a mobile app, helped care for 645,000 children, providing evidence-based guidance to parents of children aged 0-6.
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The AI and machine learning tool created by Avyantra facilitated neonatal sepsis scoring for 1,800 babies in India.
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Using blockchain, Prescrypto’s electronic prescription platform helped 300,000 children.
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Eyebou, the AI-powered eye screening tool helped 5,000 children in foster care and Neural Labs's AI-assisted respiratory disease diagnosis aided 2,000 children --- both technologies designed specifically to deliver efficiently and effectively in resource-constrained settings.
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25,000 children were supported by Portal Telemedicina, a platform for teleconsultation and population health management.
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mPower's OpenSRP-based health registry platform registered 24,780,000 children, improving vaccination timeliness and coverage across Bangladesh.
With sustained investment in sourcing, piloting and scaling emerging technology in health innovation, communities in the farthest corners of the world can expect access to groundbreaking life-saving interventions. With the technological advancement available, preventable maternal and child deaths can be just that – preventable.
