The human and economic cost of malaria in Nigeria is staggering. There are currently 110 million clinically diagnosed cases in a population of 151 million. Malaria kills 250,000 children under five years old in Nigeria every year, and is the cause of 11% of maternal deaths. 60% of out-patient visits and 30% of hospitalizations in the country are malaria-related.
In addition to the enormous toll malaria takes on public health, it is also expensive. 132 billion Naira (USD $870 million) is lost every year in the form of malaria prevention and treatment costs and from the loss of overall economic productivity. And yet in spite of the risk malaria poses to the Nigerian people, health surveys from 2006 to 2008 indicated that only 8% of households in the country owned at least one insecticide-treated net (So-called ITNs).
Needless to say, there is an urgent need for ramped-up malaria prevention efforts in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has been collaborating with a variety of international organizations, including the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNDP and UNICEF on a campaign to “Roll Back Malaria.” This effort has led to the creation of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) that seeks to unify all of the disparate pieces of the Nigerian malaria control strategy at the national, regional and local levels.
In its 2006-2010 strategic plan, the NMCP sets out the goals of “a reduction of [the] malaria burden by half (50%) by the year 2010 compared to the year 2000.” UNICEF is a key partner in the Nigerian anti-malaria campaign, supplying “safe, effective and affordable anti-malaria interventions.” NMCP and UNICEF have called for the distribution 63 million insecticide-treated bednets to Nigerian households by the end of 2010. According to Naawa Sipilanyambe, UNICEF Nigeria's Chief of Health and Nutrition, by February 2010, 80% of households in 10 states had received ITNs through the initiative. As of March 2010, 16.5 million ITNs have been distributed in 11 states.
No Data Means Decision Making in the Dark
“Often, we feel we’re making decisions in the dark.” According to Tim Akinbo, a local software developer who works with UNICEF in Nigeria, this is the feedback UNICEF field staff would offer when asked about the challenges they encountered in doing their work. Indeed, when rolling out a logistically complex initiative like the large-scale distribution of bednets, implementation teams constantly need to find ways to work around the constraints in large-scale aid delivery. Poor infrastructure, issues related to transportation and communication, difficulties of accessing and working in remote locations all test the supply chain management of aid organizations.UNICEF Innovation, working with its country offices, launched a mobile technology initiative in 2008 to address the challenges in on-the-ground data collection and supply chain management in aid delivery. RapidSMS, on of the products that orginitated with the Innovation team, is a free, open-source framework for dynamic data collection, logistics coordination, and communication. The software was introduced as a tool to resolve a common problem in the delivery of aid projects: How can relevant be collected and accessed data faster?
RapidSMS in Supply Chain Management
RapidSMS was developed by UNICEF Innovation in partnership with the technology company Dimagi, along with members of the Open Mobile Consortium. RapidSMS implementations across Africa capitalize on the growing prevalence of mobile phones on the continent, and the ease and cost-effectiveness of text messaging to allow for better and more timely coordination of aid delivery projects. Following a famine in Ethiopia in 2008, UNICEF carried out a large-scale food distribution program with the help of mobile phones targeting malnourished children at more than 1,800 feeding centers. RapidSMS was first used to track the real-time availability and delivery of food aid in remote locations, helping to eliminate the kind of delays a paper-based data collection system creates.
http://mobileactive.org/malaria-kills-getting-63-million-bednets-nigerians-rapidsms
In addition to the enormous toll malaria takes on public health, it is also expensive. 132 billion Naira (USD $870 million) is lost every year in the form of malaria prevention and treatment costs and from the loss of overall economic productivity. And yet in spite of the risk malaria poses to the Nigerian people, health surveys from 2006 to 2008 indicated that only 8% of households in the country owned at least one insecticide-treated net (So-called ITNs).
Needless to say, there is an urgent need for ramped-up malaria prevention efforts in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has been collaborating with a variety of international organizations, including the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNDP and UNICEF on a campaign to “Roll Back Malaria.” This effort has led to the creation of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) that seeks to unify all of the disparate pieces of the Nigerian malaria control strategy at the national, regional and local levels.
In its 2006-2010 strategic plan, the NMCP sets out the goals of “a reduction of [the] malaria burden by half (50%) by the year 2010 compared to the year 2000.” UNICEF is a key partner in the Nigerian anti-malaria campaign, supplying “safe, effective and affordable anti-malaria interventions.” NMCP and UNICEF have called for the distribution 63 million insecticide-treated bednets to Nigerian households by the end of 2010. According to Naawa Sipilanyambe, UNICEF Nigeria's Chief of Health and Nutrition, by February 2010, 80% of households in 10 states had received ITNs through the initiative. As of March 2010, 16.5 million ITNs have been distributed in 11 states.
No Data Means Decision Making in the Dark
“Often, we feel we’re making decisions in the dark.” According to Tim Akinbo, a local software developer who works with UNICEF in Nigeria, this is the feedback UNICEF field staff would offer when asked about the challenges they encountered in doing their work. Indeed, when rolling out a logistically complex initiative like the large-scale distribution of bednets, implementation teams constantly need to find ways to work around the constraints in large-scale aid delivery. Poor infrastructure, issues related to transportation and communication, difficulties of accessing and working in remote locations all test the supply chain management of aid organizations.UNICEF Innovation, working with its country offices, launched a mobile technology initiative in 2008 to address the challenges in on-the-ground data collection and supply chain management in aid delivery. RapidSMS, on of the products that orginitated with the Innovation team, is a free, open-source framework for dynamic data collection, logistics coordination, and communication. The software was introduced as a tool to resolve a common problem in the delivery of aid projects: How can relevant be collected and accessed data faster?
RapidSMS in Supply Chain Management
RapidSMS was developed by UNICEF Innovation in partnership with the technology company Dimagi, along with members of the Open Mobile Consortium. RapidSMS implementations across Africa capitalize on the growing prevalence of mobile phones on the continent, and the ease and cost-effectiveness of text messaging to allow for better and more timely coordination of aid delivery projects. Following a famine in Ethiopia in 2008, UNICEF carried out a large-scale food distribution program with the help of mobile phones targeting malnourished children at more than 1,800 feeding centers. RapidSMS was first used to track the real-time availability and delivery of food aid in remote locations, helping to eliminate the kind of delays a paper-based data collection system creates.
http://mobileactive.org/malaria-kills-getting-63-million-bednets-nigerians-rapidsms
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