Spatial intelligence platform Reveal empowers Angola NMCP, MENTOR Initiative, and E8 to achieve impressive IRS coverage in Cuando Cubango Province, Angola
By Parysa Oskouipour on August 26, 2021 in GIS, Malaria, News
In recent years, countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region of Africa have been making outstanding strides toward the challenging goal of malaria elimination. This commitment to elimination is the guiding mandate of Elimination 8 (E8), which focuses on the following countries: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Through E8, these ministerial bodies have resolved to coordinate their efforts to collaboratively work toward the shared regional goal of malaria elimination.
To that end, in 2017, E8 contracted with MENTOR to deliver indoor residual spray (IRS) in border districts of southern Angola. The MENTOR Initiative is a registered nonprofit organization devoted to reducing deaths and suffering from tropical diseases. In Angola, MENTOR has been a stable National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) partner supporting vector control, case management, and surveillance activities since 2004. MENTOR has established offices across Angola and has full country reach in its operations, making it the ideal partner for E8 to engage for expanded IRS interventions. Since 2017, MENTOR has implemented IRS with reported high coverage rates in all campaigns conducted. For its 2020 campaign, MENTOR aimed to improve IRS reporting systems and increase accountability to donors and NMCP. To realize this goal, they chose to pilot Reveal—a digital global good and open source spatial intelligence platform used to drive the delivery of life-saving interventions. MENTOR collaborated with Akros to configure and support the field pilot of Reveal v. 1 in Menongue District (Cuando Cubango Province).
Through Reveal, field teams and managers use detailed household and community maps, protocols, and a data-collection and dashboarding platform for decision-making support to plan, implement, and adjust interventions so they achieve the greatest impact. Akros’ partnership with MENTOR Initiative to pilot Reveal v. 1 in Menogue District to support IRS delivery first included assessment and scoping to understand three key elements: intervention and data collection and management protocols, resource availability, and the environment within which Reveal was to be implemented and sustained. Akros then conducted system configuration to align IRS standard operating procedures (SOPs) with the Reveal platform, set-up mobile application and coverage dashboards, and configured feedback loops and tasking for unique user roles. Following that, the Reveal team participated in campaign planning, including enumeration and base map preparation and work to plan and validate in-field assumptions. Finally, the Reveal team supported implementation in December 2020 and provided post-implementation support.
