October 12, 2026 06:00 ET | Source: Wellcome Leap Inc.
- Stillbirth affects families everywhere, but the burden is not shared equally: Of the nearly 2 million babies stillborn each year, almost half occur in sub-Saharan Africa
- New investment will focus on advancing innovations with the potential to cut stillbirth rates by half in select countries through a new program called Uzima
- Joint commitment will begin with partners in sub-Saharan Africa advancing promising new tools and creating a blueprint for reducing stillbirths globally, with additional partners and funding coming later
BERLIN, Oct. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap today announced a new initiative called Uzima: A Stillbirth Prevention Program, which aims to demonstrate that stillbirth rates can be reduced by half over the next decade across select countries. Uzima will identify, validate, and scale promising innovations that can help families and health workers recognize risks earlier and respond to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. By showing what works in partnership with different health systems, the program will create a model for bringing these advances to women and babies around the world.
Nearly 2 million babies worldwide are stillborn each year—one every 17 seconds. Each loss has real and lasting consequences for women and families. Despite the scale of the challenge, stillbirth prevention remains underfunded and overlooked in maternal and newborn health, with significant gaps in research and innovation around the pregnancy complications that contribute to these losses.
“As a pediatrician, I know how critical the moments surrounding birth are for babies and their families—and how much is at stake when complications arise,” said Anita Zaidi, president of the Gender Equality Division at the Gates Foundation. “We’re working toward a future where no mother, baby, or child dies from a preventable cause. That’s why we’re supporting Uzima: to give health workers better tools to recognize risks in pregnancy and act in time, so more families can welcome healthy babies into the world.”
Uzima will validate and scale a suite of innovations across pregnancy and childbirth, including tools and processes that can dramatically reduce stillbirths when effectively integrated into health systems. Participating countries will help shape the program so that it reflects their priorities, fits within their health systems, and meets the needs of families in their communities. While Uzima is focused on settings where the burden is highest, many of the innovations will have broad applications in middle- and high-income countries as well—particularly in underserved, rural, and resource-constrained communities.
The program will explore several categories of innovation, including:
- Biomarker-based, imaging-based, and other diagnostic tools, including fundoscopy, that support earlier detection and risk stratification of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, enabling timely referral and management.
- Artificial intelligence-enabled ultrasound and other screening tools that could make risk assessment and detection of complications more accessible in settings with limited resources.
- Sensors and monitoring technologies used during labor that could help health workers detect complications sooner.
- Decision-support tools that are enabled with AI and could help health workers interpret warning signs and make timely clinical decisions.
- Integrated, personalized support and patient navigation systems for mothers, families, and community health workers to provide actionable data and track progress.
Named for the Swahili word meaning “life and well-being,” Uzima is designed to generate the evidence needed to take effective, innovative tools from large-scale demonstration to broader implementation. The program expects to identify an initial package of innovations by early 2027 and announce its first participating country partner in the coming months.
“By the time you read this paragraph, another baby will be stillborn. Each year, millions of mothers will suffer the grief of their loss—a grief that does not observe borders or spare families,” said Regina E. Dugan, CEO of Wellcome Leap. “Stillbirth is not an inevitable tragedy. We have new tools and the science needed to change outcomes. With our partners at the Gates Foundation and in communities, we can bring these new advances together, demonstrate what is possible at convincing scale, and build a blueprint that can save lives around the world. The question is not whether we can make the next decade one of extraordinary progress in maternal health. The question is whether we will.”
The Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap are each contributing $50 million during the program’s first three years to identify and validate promising candidates. The effort will build on technologies developed through Wellcome Leap’s In Utero program and innovations supported by the Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition and Health (MNCNH) program at the Gates Foundation. The two organizations are calling on investors, philanthropies, governments, and other partners to join the effort because additional partners and funding will be needed to expand approaches that prove effective. They’re also inviting ministers of health to help shape the program and explore opportunities for their countries to participate.
Following the initial three-year phase, Uzima will work with participating countries to implement and expand the approaches that prove most effective. While the program will initially focus on settings with the fewest resources and a strong commitment to partnership, its longer-term goal is to generate evidence that can help effective tools reach more health workers, women, and families around the world.
About Wellcome Leap
Wellcome Leap is a billion-dollar breakthrough engine for human health—at global scale. Founded by the Wellcome Trust in 2020 as a U.S. nonprofit, Wellcome Leap builds and executes bold, unconventional programs with the urgency required to deliver breakthroughs in years, not decades. Operating at the intersection of life sciences and engineering, Leap programs require best-in-class, multi-disciplinary, global teams assembled from universities, companies, and nonprofits working together to solve problems that they cannot solve alone. To date, Wellcome Leap has committed more than $250 million to ambitious programs aimed at fundamentally improving health outcomes for women worldwide. Explore the portfolio at wellcomeleap.org/womens-health.
For more information, read how Wellcome Leap is Changing the Business of Breakthroughs and visit www.wellcomeleap.org.
About the Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. In the United States, we aim to ensure that everyone—especially those with the fewest resources—has access to the opportunities needed to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and our governing board.
Media contacts
Wellcome Leap: press@wellcomeleap.org
Gates Foundation: media@gatesfoundation.org
