Digital security company Gemalto is to provide support to the GSMAs pan-African mHealth Initiative, a mobile ecosystem aimed at improving maternal and child health and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

The GSMA project brings together stakeholders from the mobile and health industries, as well as the public sector, with the objective of leveraging a wide range of communications products, solutions and infrastructures. These will be used to deliver sustainable and effective mHealth support to meet the needs of over 15m pregnant women and mothers with children under five years old. The initiative is planned to launch across seven countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia, in September 2014, then extend to a further four in early 2015.

Gemaltos digital security expertise will be applied to two key programs: the United Nations Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy, and the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact. It will use its existing relationships with mobile operators across the region to bring mHealth and nutrition services to a large user base, utilising its advanced SmartMessage interactive messaging solution. The hope is that the programs can simplify the relationships between patients and health stakeholders to deliver targeted nutritional and health advice via mobiles.

“As the world is becoming ever more digital and wireless, we are thrilled to see our solutions being used to support a noble social cause with this initiative,” said Philippe Vallée, COO at Gemalto. “There can surely be no clearer illustration of the potential of mobile solutions to fundamentally change the expectations and outcomes of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.”