Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap commit $100m to cut stillbirths

The Uzima programme targets a 50% reduction in stillbirth rates across select countries over a decade, led by AI diagnostics and biomarker tools.

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A brightly lit medical examination room, illuminated by natural light from a large window, features a modern monitor on a lit base displaying a 3D rendering of a fetus with vital signs, a white examination table, and a gray chair.

The Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap have announced a joint $100 million commitment to a new stillbirth prevention programme called Uzima, with the goal of halving stillbirth rates in select countries within ten years. Each organisation is contributing $50 million over an initial three-year phase focused on identifying and validating promising innovations.

The programme takes its name from the Swahili word for "life and well-being." Uzima will target countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half of the world's approximately two million annual stillbirths occur. The initiative is designed to move technologies from large-scale demonstration into broader implementation, with the first participating country partner expected to be named within months and an initial package of innovations identified by early 2027.

What the programme will fund

Uzima's scope spans a range of diagnostic and monitoring technologies. These include biomarker-based and imaging tools to support earlier detection of complications such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, AI-enabled ultrasound for risk stratification in resource-limited settings, labour monitoring sensors to detect complications earlier, and clinical decision-support tools powered by AI. The programme will also fund personalised patient navigation systems for mothers, families, and community health workers.

Regina Dugan, chief executive of Wellcome Leap, set out the scale of the challenge in unusually direct terms: "By the time you read this paragraph, another baby will be stillborn. Stillbirth is not an inevitable tragedy. We have new tools and the science needed to change outcomes."

Uzima will build on technologies already developed through Wellcome Leap's In Utero programme and on maternal health innovations supported by the Gates Foundation's MNCNH programme, giving the initiative a foundation of existing preclinical and field evidence rather than starting from scratch.

Market and regulatory context

The initiative sits at the intersection of digital health, diagnostics, and global public health, and reflects a broader trend toward AI-augmented point-of-care tools in low- and middle-income country settings. Several university spinouts and diagnostics companies are developing handheld ultrasound devices and AI screening algorithms for use in under-resourced environments; Uzima's structured validation framework could serve as a key evidence-generation pathway for technologies seeking regulatory approval or procurement by national health ministries.

The programme's architects are explicit that success will depend on additional partners. The Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap are calling on governments, investors, and philanthropies to co-fund scale-up of approaches that prove effective in the initial phase. That fundraising ambition is notable: the $100 million commitment covers validation only, and full implementation across even a handful of sub-Saharan African health systems would require multiples of that figure.

For diagnostics and digital health companies with relevant technologies, Uzima represents a credible route to real-world evidence in high-burden settings, which increasingly matters to regulators and procurement bodies alike. The WHO's 2023 guidance on digital health interventions emphasised the need for evidence from low-resource environments, and programmes of this scale could accelerate that evidence base considerably for the field as a whole.

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