Mobile Platform Enables Unprecedented Sanitation Uptake in Zambia

Mobile Platform Enables Unprecedented Sanitation Uptake in Zambia

By Akros Media on February 15, 2017 in Health Data Systems, News, Water and Sanitation Health

CLTS has been shown to be an effective method to combat malnutrition and stunting in children under five. In this study, a mobile-to-web platform increased the uptake of CLTS even further, allowing for greater community feedback, a reduced cost per new user of sanitation, and increased data transparency.

Akros, in partnership with Zambia’s Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH) and UNICEF, layered a unique mobile-to-web application over traditional CLTS delivery methods, resulting in an innovative service delivery and monitoring system dubbed “CLTS M2W.”

CLTS M2W uses mobile phones, automated data feedback loops, and engagement of traditional leaders to provide communities with the ability to clearly see their progress towards sanitation goals. CLTS M2W paved the way for unprecedented CLTS uptake in Zambia, facilitating the creation of over 1,500,000 new users of sanitation in 18 months. In short, CLTS creates the demand, and CLTS M2W creates the critical transparency necessary to drive sustained behavior change.

Read the full study in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Read this and more CLTS-related news on the CLTS Knowledge Hub.

Gavi Pacesetter organizations

Gavi Pacesetter organizations

By Akros Media on February 8, 2017 in Health Data Systems, News

GAVI is an international organization – a global Vaccine Alliance – bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. It is backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

GAVI held its first INFUSE workshop (Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in immunization) in Geneva. Around 60 organizations and companies applied to the program, and 18 of these projects were selected for a final round of vetting in front of a panel with representatives from the organizations and companies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. At the end of the workshop, the panel selected seven “pacesetter” organizations who will work with GAVI to scale up their ideas and projects and bring them to new countries.

We are excited to announce that Akros has been selected as one of these seven pacesetter organizations for a concept that follows in-line with our approach of gathering village level information to inform decision making. The approach takes existing monitoring tools in the country, like stock monitoring and commodities tracking, and merges them into a single vaccine-tracking database using a platform called DHIS2. In the database, Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) log immunizations delivered using simple feature phones. Parents of children due for their next immunization receive SMS appointment reminders along with a list of clinics that have the vaccine in stock. The RHC also receives a list of patients in the area who are due for follow-up vaccination appointments.

“Vaccine coverage has made big leaps, but until we reach the last mile of care, we won’t see disease elimination,” said Akros Portfolio Lead, Laurie Markle. “We are excited what this partnership could mean for reaching the ‘fifth child,’ not just in Zambia but around the globe.”

Akros shares its designation as a 2016 Gavi Pacesetter with six other organizations: Shifo, IRD, KhushiBaby, Energize the Chain, Broadreach, and Nexleaf Analytics.

As part of the partnership, Akros and GAVI will work closely over the coming year to identify resources and partnerships that will enable both implementation of the program and maximum impact.

Chipo’s Story

Chipo’s Story

By Andy Prinsen on February 3, 2017 in News, Trachoma Prevention

Akros is proud to be working with Sightsavers, an organization working in more than 30 countries to eliminate avoidable blindness and support people with visual impairments to live independently. Recently, we spent a day with Chipo, a young girl living in rural Zambia. Both Chipo’s great grandmother and great-great-grandmother are blind as the result of an infection called trachoma. Their disability would make life more difficult anywhere in the world, but especially so in the setting where their family lives. Chipo must work extra hard every day to care for her elders, often times at the expense of her studies.

Sightsavers has featured Chipo’s story, created in partnership with Akros, at their Exposure site. Click here to read the story, and stay a while to browse the other powerful pieces demonstrating the difference that can be made for those with blindness – and in the prevention of blindness – around the world.

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