Researching the impact of a caregiver education program on newborn and maternal health in India.
We partnered with The Agency Fund on a research grant to fund a two-stage randomized controlled trial of Noora Health's Care Companion Program, led by researchers at UC Berkeley and J-PAL South Asia.
Grant Description
Each year, an estimated 1.4 million children under five die in South Asia, many from causes that evidence-based newborn care practices could prevent, in part because families receive little guidance once they leave the hospital.
Noora Health's Care Companion Program (CCP) seeks to address this gap through interactive training sessions held in hospital wards before discharge, teaching family caregivers practical skills such as recognizing newborn warning signs, umbilical cord care, and when to seek follow-up medical care. Some caregivers also receive ongoing guidance through a mobile messaging service in the weeks after they return home. CCP currently operates in India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
This grant reflects WAM Foundation's interest in funding rigorous research where the cost of generating evidence is low relative to the potential policy impact.
The Agency Fund plans to conduct a two-stage cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating CCP, led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia. The research team plans to follow mother-infant pairs across both stages in India, each delivered by government health workers with training from Noora Health.