PMNCH Launches Initiative to Design the Roadmap for Scaling Low-cost Innovations for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health

The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) today announced the launch of a new collaboration to advance low-costs innovations for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH), bringing together partners across governments, private sector, philanthropy, civil society, academia and multilateral organizations to accelerate the development, adoption and scaling of affordable high-impact solutions. 

Despite significant advances in lifesaving technologies and service delivery models, many high-impact innovations remain underutilized or slow to scale, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. PMNCH is convening partners to collectively address the systemic barriers that limit access, including policy pathways, financing models, local production ecosystems, supply chains and workforce readiness. 

Rather than focusing on innovation as a standalone concept, this collaboration will explore how innovation can be embedded within health systems and delivered through coordinated public-private-philanthropic partnerships.  

The initiative will:  

• Foster shared learning,  

• Generate practical guidance, and  

• Catalyse collaboration across sectors to ensure that effective solutions reach those who need them most. 

Throughout 2026, PMNCH will host a series of regional and global dialogues to shape a collective roadmap for scaling low-cost innovations for WCAH. These conversations will bring together diverse stakeholders to identify enabling environments for innovation, share lessons from country and organizational experiences, and explore pathways to accelerate implementation and scaling-up. 

Key milestones include: 

• Regional innovation dialogues aligned with major global health convenings 

• Engagements linked to upcoming global moments such as the World Health Assembly (WHA) 

• Dedicated sessions at regional platforms, including the World Health Summit Regional Meetings 

Additional events and collaborative exchanges to be announced throughout the year, reach out to pmnch@who.int for inspiring ideas and collaborations. 

Insights generated through these engagements will inform a consolidated set of learnings and a forward-looking roadmap to guide future action. 

For more information, reach out to PMNCH Prive Sector and Private Foundations focal point, David Gomez at gomejo@who.int