Bangladeshi Slums Reduce Maternal and Infant Mortality with the Help of Innovative Health Data
Nearly one billion people worldwide live in slums–unplanned communities that are overcrowded, highly impoverished, and hazardous to their residents. These people are at high risk of being left behind not only in official statistics, but also in receiving essential services like healthcare. International nonprofit BRAC developed a data-driven approach to account and care for mothers and young children in these communities through healthcare initiative Manoshi. Manoshi built the capacity of local health workers in Bangladesh to derive actionable data from social mapping, local censuses, and real-time data-sharing via mobile technology, contributing to more timely and effective maternal health interventions in urban slums. Following the introduction of the Manoshi project, maternal mortality fell by 56 percent and infant mortality fell by 60 percent in project areas. BRAC estimates that from 2008 to 2017, 1,087 maternal deaths were averted out of the 2,476 deaths that would have been expected based on national statistics. This project underscores the value of making vulnerable people visible in the data and the potential for any system, at any level and of any capacity, to deliver life-saving services by investing in timely, accurate, and inclusive data.
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