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Merrick Schaefer's presentation of RapidSMS - txts 4 Africa - at Gov2.0 Summit
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txts 4 Africa
What is UNICEF?
UNICEF is a UN agency, not an NGO or non-profit.
UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.
We work and raise money in 186 countries and have a truly global scope.
What is UNICEF?
UNICEF is similar to a consultancyAdvise government policyWork directly with ministries
Help provide logistical servicesPlanes, trucks, even donkeysEconomies of scale
what is UNICEF?
We are also the world’s biggest purchaser of vaccines...
and of pencils!
Malawi
The story starts in:
Malawi Malnutrition Project
UNICEF Innovation Team
Looking at ways changing technologies can be applied to existing problems.
Partnered with SIPA at Columbia University
Partnered with Malawi Ministry of Health
Malnutrition can be accurately measured with
Age+
Height WeightUpper Arm
Circumference
Changing Technological Landscape
The adoption of cell phones in Africa has been one of the quickest technological adoptions in the world.
1998: 2 million 2010: 500 million
Current cell phone penetration is at 60%
Most importantly all the Community Health workers had them.
Open source framework for building SMS-based systems
Build on existing working practices with an appropriate technology
Swap paper for phones
What can you do with 160 characters?
All the Malnutrition predictors fit
Pair it with powerful back-end software
Costs low since health workers have cells
• Training• Costs of SMS messages
Broad ApplicationEthiopia: Tracking food distribution during
famine
Zambia: Tracking neonatal health HIV/AIDS infected mothers
Nigeria: Tracking distribution of malarial bed nets
Senegal: Using SMS as an incentive and tool for teaching literacy
Changing Institutional Practices
Technology is only one element of innovation
Can institutional practices keep pace?
Now that we have real time data how can we change our work methodologies to take advantage of it.
Thank You!Learn More: www.unicefinnovation.org www.rapidsms.org
Join In: http://github.com/rapidsms/rapidsms irc.freenode.net | #rapidsms
Merrick Schaefer: mschaefer@unicef.org
Twitter: @unimps
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