Jacaranda Health
Model & Strategy
Jacaranda Health’s mission is to change the way that maternity care is provided in Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that maternal mortality can be reduced by 75% with access to decent quality maternity care. Jacaranda is building a network of clinics to provide world-class care for low-income women, delivering clinical, technology, and business innovations designed with mothers in mind. The model consists of mobile clinics and small maternity hospitals which make care accessible and affordable in urban areas. Revenues from clients sustain the operating costs of the network.
Jacaranda’s goal is to become the largest provider of maternity care in the region, and a laboratory for innovation in health that influences policymakers, funders, and health providers globally. To date, they have built a world-class team, developed critical partnerships and support within Kenya, sparked the interest of the global maternal health community and received awards for their business model.
Nick Pearson, Founder and Executive Director of Jacaranda Health, has worked at the intersection of business and global health in East Africa, Vietnam, and India. Prior to founding Jacaranda, he was in Kenya for the Acumen Fund investing in businesses serving the urban poor. There he met his wife, an OB/GYN working in Western Kenya, who described to him her friend’s death during childbirth – which could have been easily avoided with better care. He set out to launch Jacaranda Health and bring business savvy and scalability to maternal health. Nick is a Rainer Arnolds Fellow, a Brian Maxwell Fellow and an Ashoka Changemaker.
IMPACT
Jacaranda works with a growing number of county partners to improve maternal and newborn outcomes in public sector hospitals—improving nurse obstetric skills and empowering mothers to seek health through mobile tools. In 2019, they grew to work in over 100 health facilities across Kenya, which collectively deliver over 70, 000 babies a year. Additionally, they have enrolled 80,000 pregnant women in their mobile health program. Research (including an RCT) has demonstrated that their tools have a significant impact on the quality of care for mothers in partner facilities – including health-seeking behavior among mothers, nurse performance, and health outcomes such as infant mortality and reductions in postpartum hemorrhage. In a move toward government ownership and sustainability, county partners are already covering over 45% of the operating costs of Jacaranda’s mentorship programs.
In their own facilities, Jacaranda Health has cared for over 50,000 mothers and impacted the lives of 50,000 family members. In 2019, Jacaranda has experienced exceptional outcomes for quality of care: 100% maternal survival and 99% infant survival rate, 90% exclusive breastfeeding rates, 50%+ uptake of postpartum family planning, and 60% fewer complications than nearby hospitals.
Jacaranda Health News
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Three DRK Portfolio Orgs Receive Google.org AI Prize for the Global GoalsOver the next three years, Jacaranda Health will develop, deploy, and scale a first-of-its-kind generative AI model capable of offering context-sensitive information and referral support…Mar 2024 -
Jacaranda Health Receives Geneva Forum for Health AwardNick Pearson, the DRK-supported founder of Jacaranda Health, is traveling to Geneva this week to receive the Geneva Forum For Health Award for Jacaranda. This award is given…May 2018
