Trends and Gaps in Funding and Scaling Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations Main Authors: Allison Ettenger1 and Krista Donaldson2 | Key Contributor: Sweta Govani3 2 December 2020 PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH This paper was made possible by data about MNH innovations and funding provided by Global Innovation Exchange, the largest global innovation database managed by Results for Development. 1 Consulting Researcher, Equalize Health 2 Chief Executive Officer, Equalize Health; Corresponding author:
[email protected] 3 Lead for Global Innovation Exchange, Results for Development (R4D) Citation: Ettenger, A.T., Govani, S.B. (Cont.), and Donaldson, K.M., (2020, December 1) Trends and Gaps in Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations for Impact at Scale. Retrieved from: https://equalizehealth.org/blog/funding-mnh-innovation Introduction Economists have long suggested that innovation offers the potential for public good (Kremer et al 2019), and many actors in global development no longer view it as “nice to have.” Indeed key actors from across the development ecosystem have sought to fund and support innovation as a way to drive greater effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability, and convene and collaborate regularly through initiatives like the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) and the UN Innovation Network . We define innovation here using IDIA’s and USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures’ complementary definitions: “a new solution with the transformative ability to accelerate impact” (IDIA 2020). These “solutions can come in the form of a product, technology, service, or application of a creative business and delivery model” (USAID 2020). Typically data on funding to global health and development innovations has been fragmented and difficult to find.