Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns

Since its inception in 2017, the ‘Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns’ (ASMAN) is helping mothers and newborns to survive, by improving the quality of care given to them during delivery and in the first 48 hours after delivery, through capacity building of the healthcare providers and technology innovations. ASMAN is being led by an alliance of development sector partners: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MSD for Mothers, Reliance Foundation, Tata Trusts and the United States Agency for International Development. For the on-ground implementation, the alliance works with Jhpiego as the lead technical partner, while Avalon Information Systems and Bodhi Health Education are responsible for development of digital content and applications; and Sambodhi is the external evaluation agency. ASMAN is focussed on strengthening the capacity of healthcare providers through continual learning and mentoring. The ASMAN digital platform is a tablet-based intrapartum and immediate postpartum monitoring and decision support tool that empowers healthcare providers to adopt best practices. Through digital technology, the programme is helping to increase accountability and transparency amongst all stakeholders. The programme has been piloted in 81 high need public health facilities across 8 select districts in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to accelerate a reduction in newborn and maternal deaths. The design of this model gives it the potential for both sustainability and scalability. Output: As of May 2019, more than 110,227 cases have been registered, over 41,763 high-risk cases detected, and 42,4004 notifications sent to doctors for timely case management. About 889 service providers have been trained.