Vectors, Hosts and VirusesBridging gaps between ICT and

Health program staff at CRS

Presenter: Carrie MillerSenior Technical Advisor for HIV & Health

on behalf of the ICT4D TeammHealth Working Group & Nethope Healthcare Working Group

Save the Children, Washington, DCAugust 16, 2012

What has CRS done to date to advance ICT4D (including mHealth)?

Build commitment to the use of ICT4D

solutions

• Business case for investment in ICT4D solutions developed and communicated

• Identify funding

Establish an ICT4D knowledge exchange

program

• Knowledge & Innovation site

• Monthly webinars• ICT4D conferences

• Mar 2010 - Nairobi• Sep 2010 Washington• Mar 2011 - Lusaka • Mar 2012 - Kigali• 2013- In planning stage

Build and maintain a portfolio of ICT4D

solutions

• Portfolio of proven solutions

• Initiate pilots• Innovation fund• NetHope

Develop CRS’ capacity to deploy and sustain

ICT4D solutions

• Created an ICT4DTeam“Help Desk”

• Strengthened partnerships with technology companies

ICT4D Strategy Goal: Mainstream the use of ICT4D solutions in our programming.

How is ICT4D used in CRS’ health programming?

Collect Mobile Data • Collect and store project data i.e., beneficiary registration, services rendered and impact indicators

Analyze and Report • Analyze project data and generate reports to meet donor requirements

Track and Monitor • Track and monitor where and what services are rendered to whom, providing visibility to stakeholders

Raise Awareness• Disseminate project information widely to partners, field

agents, community workers, and beneficiaries to raise awareness and facilitate distance learning programs

Communicate and Train• Support two way communication between CRS staff, partner

staff, field agents, community workers, and beneficiaries in dispersed locations

Provide Remote Services • Provide services to beneficiaries with limited infrastructure

e.g. banking, access to market prices, weather data, patient care information, disaster warning and learning programs

Technology is used to…

How did we get started in mHealth?

Partnerships with solution providers• AIDSRelief – Futures Group (Electronic Medical Records, SMS)• CRS India – Dimagi (job aids for Community Health Workers (CHW))• CRS Nicaragua – Sustainable Sciences Institute (job aids for CHW)• CRS Malawi – D-Tree (CSI for volunteers; C-IMCI Health Surveillance

Agents)

Support from ICT4D Team (and solution providers)

• CRS India – custom development (Uttar Pradesh - Health Management Information System for Caritas India)

• CRS Sierra Leone – Zerion (iFormbuilder Malaria KPC)

What are the considerations for an ICT4D Solution?

Implementing an ICT4D solution is not just about picking a technology…

TECHNOLOGY PROCESSPEOPLE

• End User Devices• Software / Application• Infrastructure• Telecommunications &

Networks• Addresses “What?”

• Business processes that support the use of the technology

• Addresses “Where”, “When” and “How”

• People that use and run the technology

• Addresses “Who?”

How does CRS organize support for ICT4D projects?

REQUESTOR

ICT4D TE

AM

Raise helpdesk ticket

Complete Project Definition Sheet

* on CRS.org

Contact requestor to clarify high-level requirements for

request

Conduct internal review to approve

request

Request approved?

Develop high-level workplan / solution

recommendation for request

Advise requestor on alternate support

sources should team be unable to

fulfill request

Review with requestor to kick-off

support

Yes

No

* A walkthrough of how to complete a project definition sheet is covered later in the presentation

To ensure an ICT4D solution is properly implemented in projects, CRS programs are supposed to inform the ICT4D team of their plans and support needs.

What type of ICT4D support is available?

Proposal Service Project

Description

Support provided

ICT4D Requests

• Project is at proposal development stage to secure grant / funding

• Provide inputs on ICT4D solutions that can be used on the project

• Ensure sufficient budget is allocated for ICT4D

• Project funding secured• Support required to roll-

out an ICT4D component e.g. mobile device to conduct survey

• Procurement of the software and devices

• Provide training to build capacity of local IT staff

• Provide technical expertise and support

• Project funding secured• Support required to

develop and roll-out a complete ICT4D system (i.e. software, devices, back-end hardware)

• Project management and delivery of the project in accordance to a project lifecycle methodology (including vendor management if an external vendor is contracted)

• Development / configuration of the ICT4D system

What should be considered prior to raising a request?

Considerations Questions to ask yourself Importance

Objectives • What are the objectives of the project?• How do you envision the ICT4D component

supporting the project objectives?

• Ensure clear understanding and alignment to project objectives

Outcomes & Impact

• What difference will the ICT4D component make to your project?

• What are the issues / difficulties faced if the ICT4D component is not in place?

• Provides business case for investment in ICT4D

Timeline • For proposal support requests, when is the proposal due for submission?

• For services and projects, when must the ICT4D system be rolled out in order for it to effectively support execution of the field project?

• Ensure system can be delivered in a timely manner

Budget • How much budget are you able to allocate to implement the ICT4D system / component?

• Ensure clear understanding of budget constraints

1

2

3

4

What should be considered prior to raising a request?

Considerations

Questions to ask yourself Importance

Stakeholder • Who is the business owner? Who will champion and support implementation of the ICT4D system/component?

• Who will use the ICT4D system? Are they CRS staff or partner staff?

• Ensure necessary buy-in from stakeholders can be obtained

• Ensure budget sufficiently covers the number of users involved

Limitations • What are the factors restricting / limiting use of the ICT4D system / component that will need to be considered? Consider both the environment (limited connectivity) and people (limited IT knowledge) aspects.

• Ensure the appropriate ICT4D technologies can be selected

• Know the boundaries which limit the choice of technology and other regulations and restrictions

5

6

How do staff request support?

The long term objective of the malaria project is to increase malaria prevention behaviors in the three regions of Sierra Leone. To measure project outcomes, a baseline knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) survey needs to be conducted to assess the prevalence of behaviors in the target areas. Utilizing technology for the survey will streamline the data collection process and expedite identification of key areas to address through behavior change communication initiatives.

Using technology will eliminate the need for photocopies, support data accuracy by automating skip patterns, provide more opportunities for supervision by geo-stamping and allowing the project manager to oversee data collection in multiple sites at the same time. Elimination of data entry will allow analysis to begin sooner.

Normal

Specify how technology will be used to meet the programming objectives

and not just list the project’s objectives.

Describe the outcomes and impacts of using the

technology on the project and not just the overall

outcomes of the malaria project.

An urgent priority should be exceptional.

How do staff request support?

Project Kick-Off: 1st March 2011Survey Kick-off: 15th March 2011Baseline Data Ready: 30th April 2011

Based on the grant funding of USD2 Million, USD10,000 has been allocated for implementation of systems to support the project.

Key CRS staff involved in the project are: A, B, C, D, E and will need to be involved in the data collection preparation

Capture project milestones that are dependent on the

technology being in place. If possible, provide a

specific date

Specify the amount of budget that the project has or can allocate to

technology

Specify key project members that will need to

be within the communication loop of

this request

How do staff request support?

Business owner = Name, TitlePartner = Caritas Sierra Leone, Ministry of HealthEnumerators conducting the surveys are independent field agents

Limited internet connectivity out in the field where the data is collectedEnumerators collecting data have very low IT skill levelsBeneficiaries only understand Sierra Leone Krio and their local languages

The survey will be conducted with 12000 beneficiaries involving 50 enumerators. Data collected must be integrated with the existing database.I would like GKIM to recommend a technology solution for data collection and provide a cost estimate. On-site training will also be required for the recommended solution.

Specify the business owner who is sponsoring the project. Also specify

the users as this will influence the technology

recommendation

Specify factors related to the environment where

the project is run that will need to be considered

when selecting a technology (people,

connectivity etc)

Include any other additional useful information to be

considered e.g. scale of data collection,

dependencies, specific support needed from

GKIM, if any other local vendors have been

contracted etc.

Who is the ICT4D Team?

ICT Experts

• Solution architects

• Overseas Service Delivery Unit

Subject Matter Experts

• Agro-enterprise

• M&E• Health• Emergency• Distance

learning

ICT4D Team

• Meet weekly• Review

portfolio• Review

proposals• Provide

support

What is CRS’ ICT4D Project Lifecycle Methodology?

GKIM has a project lifecycle methodology in place to ensure consistent and high quality delivery of all IT projects including ICT4D projects.

Initiate

Key

Activ

ities

Busi

ness

in

volv

emen

t

• Identify business processes that the system will support

• Identify data that will be managed by the system

• Identify and document detailed functional and technical requirements

• Develop overall system architecture

• Develop high-level and low-level design of each component (e.g. database, UI etc) to meet defined requirements

• Development and integration of each component based on the design

• Comprehensive testing of the developed system

• Establish support structure for system both centrally and locally (helpdesk)

• Conduct training to stakeholders

• Configuration and roll-out of devices

• Identify and prioritize requirements• Functionalities• Performance &

Security• Provide sign-off on

requirements

• Review and validation of design

• Participation in and/or identification of participants for user acceptance testing (UAT)

• Participation and/or identification of participants for training

Analyze Requirements

Architect & Design

Implement & Test Deploy Operate &

Maintain

• Define scope of the project

• Develop high-level solution recommendation

• Plan the project

• Maintain and provide support to end users of the system

• Provide fixes for system issues

• Enhance and tweak the system

• Raise request• Provide high-level

requirements• Verify timeline• Verify solution

• Management of user turnover i.e. passwords etc.

• Raise help desk tickets for incidents

• Plan and raise change requests for system enhancements

FarmbookEARO M & E

PCS ScorecardHaiti M & E Malawi Mobile Application

What is the long term vision?

High-touch consultative support

Portfolio of reusable tools

Scalable cost-effective model

Tips for Enhancing Collaboration

• ICT staff: Field visits are invaluable– Understand field constraints and capacity– Trouble shooting/support for new users– Able to articulate challenges to solution providers

• Health staff: – Keep current on mHealth research and applications

relevant to health projects to reduce “reinventing the wheel”

– Get firsthand experience with developing and rolling out an mHealth solution

Tips Continued…

• ICT and Health Staff:– Make an effort to learn key concepts/terms from

each other’s fields– Be patient and communicate often; if possible set

up a mechanism for regular communication– Collaboration enhanced by experience– Don’t underestimate the amount of time needed

for understanding the requirements & training– Document lessons learned and share

Acknowledgements

Slides adapted from Pei Ni Ong with input from Jessica Silverthorne, Stephen Hellen, Or Dashevsky, and Ognen Plavevski

Full presentation about CRS’ ICT4D processes and others from the March 2012 ICT4D Conference in Kigali, Rwanda are available at:

http://www.crsprogramquality.org/ict4d-2012/