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