July 11th marked World Population Day, a date established and observed to focus attention on the complexity of our rapidly growing global population and the interconnected challenges and developmental impacts that accompany it. Projections by the UNFPA indicate that by late October 2011, the world’s population will hit 7 billion, with demographic trends suggesting that many least developed countries will experience a doubling in population over the next decade.
 
Many complex factors contribute to population growth.  The impacts of the demographic transition, global food supplies, urbanisation, poverty, politics and cultural and religious preferences and practices are but a few of the processes underlying the unprecedented speed at which humanity is expanding across the globe. Different scholars have debated the significance of certain necessary or sufficient factors driving population growth, however consensus seems to exist  (at least in the international development community) around the importance of access to family planning resources, maternal and newborn health, education, and the ability of women to exercise autonomy over their reproductive choices in curbing the poverty/population growth cycle.
 
According to the UN, “the rise in population is expected to have a devastating impact on some 215 million women who want – but do not have – access to quality reproductive health and family planning services.” It is thought that by better meeting family planning needs in LMIC’s, maternal death could be reduced by 32%, and infant mortality could decrease by 10%.
 
There are several interesting initiatives in the mobile health sphere that speak to the challenges associated with improving access to reproductive health services and which work to address population issues either directly or remotely through their advocacy of maternal and infant health and facilitating improved access to family planning. The Maternal- Newborn mHealth Initiative (MMI) hosted by the Mobile Health Alliance, the recently launched USAID Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), campaigns such as Johnson & Johnson’s Text4Baby and the myriad of mHealth solutions offering remote monitoring, education and support for pregnant and new mothers and the midwives, community health workers and health professionals that support them are indicative of the energies and investment the mHealth community is pouring into finding effective solutions.
 
But a solution is only a solution if it is adopted and impacts those it seeks to assist. The mWomen team at the GSMA Development Fund has identified that in LMIC’s, women are 37% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, thus reducing the accessibility and effectiveness of these maternal and reproductive mHealth services. The mWomen team recently recommended that lowering the cost of mobile phone ownership, reducing stigma and barriers associated with female phone ownership, increasing women’s familiarity with wireless technology and the development of value-added services that meet the wants and needs of women could reduce the gender gap in mobile ownership and simultaneously adding revenue opportunities and value to the mobile industry. These recommendations should be considered in conjunction with existing and new maternal health and reproductive planning initiatives that harness the power of mobile technology, in order to ensure that deployed projects and services brought to market are effective in addressing contributing factors to population growth through the empowerment of women.