Digital security firm Gemalto Media has announced of its plan to offer support to the GSMA pan-African mHealth Initiative (PAMI), a mobile ecosystem aimed at improving maternal and child health and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gemalto will contribute its digital security expertise to two key mHealth programs: the United Nations Every Women Every Child Global Strategy and the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact.

“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,” commented Philippe Vallée, Chief Operating Officer 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.”

Run by GSMA, which unites some 800 global mobile operators, the PAMI initiative brings together stakeholders from the mobile and health industries, as well as from the public sector. The project will leverage a wide range of communications products, solutions and infrastructures to deliver sustainable and effective mHealth support that meets the needs of over 15 million pregnant women and mothers with children under five years old.

Gemalto will help bring mHealth and nutrition services to the masses dynamically through its advanced SmartMessage interactive messaging solution, leveraging its existing relationships with mobile operators across the region. The aim is to simplify the relationships between patients and health stakeholders to deliver targeted nutritional and health advice via mobile phones.

The first phase of the initiative will be launched in September this year across seven countries namely, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. It will later be extended to Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania in early 2015.