Speaking at the Saving Lives at Birth Development Exchange at the State Department on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton “prais[ed] innovators from around the globe for their work to protect the health and lives of mothers and children at birth, particularly in rural areas of the developing world,” IPP Digital reports (Babb, 7/28).

The innovators are competing in the “Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development,” which is jointly funded by USAID, Norway’s Foreign Ministry, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and the World Bank, according to the Globe and Mail (Koring, 7/28).

“According to a July 28 USAID statement, the partnership received more than 600 submissions from around the world and selected 77 finalists … ‘to compete in the final stage of the competition, display their ideas to the public in an open marketplace and establish connections with a community of innovators dedicated to a single cause: ensuring every mother delivers safely and every newborn has a healthy start to life,'” IPP Digital writes (7/28).