MomConnect is a South African maternal health initiative launched in August 2014 by then Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, produced by the country's National Department of Health in partnership with the Praekelt Foundation. It uses mobile phone technology to send pregnant women and new mothers weekly SMS health messages that continue until the child's first birthday, and has been available on WhatsApp since December 2017, offering richer interaction and location-based clinic information. Available in all eleven of South Africa's official languages, MomConnect reached over 900,000 registered users by December 2016 and nearly two million pregnant women and mothers overall within its first years, covering an estimated eighty percent of pregnancies within South Africa's public health sector, and has been described as the only nationally scaled mobile health platform in Africa.
Facts
Sponsoring BodySouth African National Department of Health, produced by the Praekelt Foundation 1 Target PopulationPregnant women and new mothers 1 Health GoalSupport maternal health using cell phone based technology 1 Geographic ScopeSouth Africa, national scale 1 Measured ResultsOver 2.7 million users in its first five years, about 80% of pregnancies within the public sector 1 Program status (class) Classification
Program KindHealth Education Program 1 Connections
Delivers Practice
Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: MomConnect
Lead section, launch sentence
It was launched by Aaron Motsoaledi in August 2014.
Lead section, initiative description sentence
MomConnect is an initiative of the South African National Department of Health produced by the Praekelt Foundation.
Lead section, usage sentence
Nearly 2 million pregnant women and new mothers have used it
Lead section, purpose sentence
uses cell phone based technology to support maternal health
Lead section, scale sentence
the only nationally scaled mHealth platform in Africa
Lead section, first-five-years sentence
In its first five years it had over 2.7 million users, about 80% of pregnancies within the public sector.
- Wikipedia 'MomConnect': 'is an initiative of the South African National Department of Health'; usage figures through first five years; checked 2026-09-27.
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