Every two minutes around the world, a woman dies from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. The majority of these deaths are preventable. Touch believes that solving that this transportation gap is an urgent global health priority.
Global efforts to reduce maternal mortality over the past 30 years have centered around the “three delays framework” – a model that examines the delays that most seriously threaten the health of mothers and their newborns: a delay in deciding to seek care, delay in reaching a healthcare facility, and delay in receiving appropriate care upon arrival. Each stage can lead to preventable complications or death.
People living in rural or remote areas often face long distances to health facilities and limited transportation options, making timely access difficult—especially in emergencies.
Since 2013, Touch has been dedicated to delivering solutions to the maternal mortality crisis in Tanzania through emergency transportation services (EmTS). We were a proud implementing partner of the Vodafone Foundation’s
“m-mama” program*, a ground-breaking public sector collaboration which built a national system for emergency transportation for pregnant women and newborns using a government-owned and -operated dispatch service which
connects callers, from anywhere in the country, to a national network of community drivers and ambulances.
Vodafone’s m-mama program has been widely cited as a remarkable example of impact, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. In 2021, Touch joined the implementation team that expanded m-mama to Lesotho. We applied the learnings from national scale-up in Tanzania to Lesotho, adapting the program to local conditions and the unique healthcare market. Within two years, the program achieved national scale. During the period of Touch’s partnership with the Vodafone Foundation, the m-mama program* transported 150,000 women and newborns. To learn more about Vodafone’s m-mama program, click here.
Across the continent, public health systems grapple with the challenge of reaching rural populations with access to care during medical emergencies. For the most vulnerable, pregnant women and children, the stakes are even higher. Ambulance services are rarely a durable solution outside of major urban areas and impracticable to implement across large geographies, where the cost of operations would be too high and the infrastructure deficits are significant.
Many countries are experimenting with community-based transport models, motorcycle or taxi services, and novel technology platforms that bridge the distances to care and get people to the health services they need, when they need it most.
* Touch Health was an implementing partner of Vodafone Foundation’s m-mama program in Tanzania from 2014 through 2024, and in Lesotho from 2021 through 2024.
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Every day around the world, 800 women die of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. That’s one needless death every two minutes. 95% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the highest rates of maternal and newborn mortality in the world. A key cause of these unnecessary deaths is a delay in accessing care, with many patients in rural areas travelling long distances to reach health facilities.
Fueled by the resounding success of the pilot program in the Lake Zone, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hussein declared in 2022 that m-mama would become the national emergency transportation system for pregnant women. Touch began a rapid nationwide scale-up that would bring m-mama to all 184 districts of the country within 18 months.m-mama provides a toll-free number that can be called by anyone, anywhere in Tanzania and Lesotho. A national network ofgovernment-owned and -operated dispatch centersreceive calls, triage the medical condition of the caller, and then send the nearest available driver to transport the women urgently to thenearest hospitalthat can meet her needs.
Partner governments are the owners and operators of m-mama. Philanthropy partners fund the roll-out and adoption of the m-mama platform, but ongoing operating costs are adopted in phases into the national budget. Governments assume responsibility for: driver remuneration (which ensures that transport cost is not a deterrent to seeking care); operating dispatch centers; and the ongoing running costs of the ICT platform. Ultimately, m-mama delivers a hugely cost-effective solution for governments – for whom the cost of a national ambulance system would be prohibitive.
Fueled by the resounding success of the pilot program in the Lake Zone, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hussein declared in 2022 that m-mama would become the national emergency transportation system for pregnant women. Touch began a rapid nationwide scale-up that would bring m-mama to all 184 districts of the country within 18 months.m-mama provides a toll-free number that can be called by anyone, anywhere in Tanzania and Lesotho. A national network ofgovernment-owned and -operated dispatch centersreceive calls, triage the medical condition of the caller, and then send the nearest available driver to transport the women urgently to thenearest hospitalthat can meet her needs.
Partner governments are the owners and operators of m-mama. Philanthropy partners fund the roll-out and adoption of the m-mama platform, but ongoing operating costs are adopted in phases into the national budget. Governments assume responsibility for: driver remuneration (which ensures that transport cost is not a deterrent to seeking care); operating dispatch centers; and the ongoing running costs of the ICT platform. Ultimately, m-mama delivers a hugely cost-effective solution for governments – for whom the cost of a national ambulance system would be prohibitive.
