While I went to Ghana for a training for nutrition surveys,
Photo by Robert Johnston
I jumped at the chance to ride through the town and visit in person some of the innovative projects that were easily accessible in the capital Accra and those further afield through skype.
Luckily the Guardian had already identified some of the organizations and projects that I wanted to meet (article and more in-depth info on tech training institution).
The group Leti Arts has been working with animation for years and they have started to use that in their H E L P – Android App for training nurses and midwives. They are using gaming methods to encourage personnel to seek greater training as presented in their U4Know VIDEO.
The VOTOmobile organization has developed from a point of view that to have effective, affordable and scalable technology it is key to clearly account for elements of culture, psychology and human design. They have built survey tools and two way communication systems that can be used for teaching, monitoring and behavior change. They also support Savanah Signatures, an NGO dedicated to promoting ICT for the benefit of women and children. This NGO based in Tamale are implementing their version of Project MAMA.
The MoTeCH Project housed at Ghana Health Services with support provided by the Grameen Foundation was the most mature project that we identified with their own range of tools tested and implemented. This project demonstrated the health service benefits of using information technology for improving community health care worker efficiency and health service effectiveness.
The last project was a Stocks Reporting tool called EWSGhana developed by John Snow International with support from Dimagi. This Ghana Health Services tool covers over 500 reporting sites to allow closer tracking of stock levels and regular assessment of minimum / maximum stock levels to ensure a rational management of stock.
Unfortunately, I did not manage to have an official meeting with JHPIEGO concerning their innovation projects, but this is scheduled in the near future.
When UNICEF comes to the table with access to short codes and the RapidPRO platform, we will have a very strong negotiation position with these organizations to deliver on nutrition, health, protection, education and other sectors
